Erdogan: Turkey no longer able to face new refugee flow

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes a statement during a dinner in honor of ministers and heads of committees those who attend the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Budapest Process at Ciragan Palace in Istanbul, Turkey on February 19, 2019. [ Orhan Akkanat – Anadolu Agency ]

The Turkish president said on Tuesday that Turkey would not be able to shoulder a new potential migration wave on its own, Anadolu Agency reports.

Speaking in Istanbul at the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Budapest Process on Migration, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that building higher walls with barbed wire was no way to prevent irregular migration.

There are around 260 million migrants, over 68 million displaced people, and more than 25 million refugees worldwide, he said.

Turkey has spent over $37 billion of its own national resources sheltering refugees, he added, citing UN figures.

Touching upon the allegations of a so-called Armenian genocide, Erdogan said Turkey would leave the issue to the historians, regardless of propaganda spread in the west.

He went on to say that Turkey had never committed genocide in its history.

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