Countries causing Mideast disasters not helping refugees: Analyst

Richard Becker, a member of the ANSWER Coalition from San Francisco, was interviewed by Press TV about Turkey’s threat to back away from an agreement with the EU on refugees.

The following is a rush transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The EU was already demanding a list of reforms from Ankara before Turkish citizens saw visa free travel throughout Europe. And now the EU is expressing concern at the way President Erdogan is handling the post-coup purge in Turkey. Where do you think this relationship is headed?

Becker: Of course the deal that was made about the refugees is really a terrible deal for the refugees themselves. It was considered to be advantageous to the European union countries than to the Turkish government but not to refugees themselves, and now I think it’s very much up in the air, for one thing I understand that the regional deal, it was supposed to be by the end of June that visa free travel was accorded to Turkish citizens visa-free travel inside of the European Union so that has not happened so far and the European leaders, as you said, are talking about it not happening till the end of the year. Also if the Erdogan government in its quest to tighten its hold on power in Turkey which it is very much trying to do at this point, if they were to reinstate the death penalty, I think there would be the end of the accession through the European Union for Turkey.

Press TV: Right now if Turkey bails out of the refugee deal, what do you think it will mean for the refugees, for Europe and for Turkey-Europe relations?

Becker: First of all I would like to say that it’s such an unbelievable tragedy what has happened to Syria and what has happened to Iraq, too. The entire region, and now the countries that have been major players in bringing about this disaster and Turkey certainly has played a very large role, as has France, as has Britain, as the United States and Saudi Arabia. Those states are now doing nothing, very little to help the people who have become refugees because their countries have become torn apart by this kind of foreign intervention. So, I think that is the most fundamental fact and aspect of the situation that exists right now for the refugees.

Press TV: What’s going on with the coup and the post-coup activities in Turkey? Do you think that’s a suitable place for refugees right now?

Becker: No, it clearly isn’t, and actually Turkey is still a developing country and to have such a tremendous way of the refugee crisis on Turkey, and this has nothing to do with the Erdogan government or any government, but to have that kind of a burden on Turkey and for the other European countries, and Turkey is both a European and an Asian country, to have the other countries that have been responsible for so much of the damage in the Middle East to take a position now that they are not going to accept more than really a tiny number of refugees is very very bad and also is a dangerous situation inside of Turkey, as you said for the refugees, it’s a crisis that those countries which have brought about this disaster in Syria and in Iraq must take responsibility for, we must insist upon that.

Press TV: Statistics show that if the European countries take their own respective quota of refugees they can handle, it will amount to less than one percent of each in every one of the respective populations, so wouldn’t it be a tremendous pressure the way they tried to put it out in the media that they would break to take away their jobs or break their economy, it is not that it would do such thing, what is your take on that?

Becker: Of course when you look at other countries in the region which have very large refugee populations, Jordan’s population is a majority refugees, it’s Palestinian refugees and now Syrian and Iraqi refugees, it’s a majority of the population of the country. We are not talking about one percent or 5 percent, we are talking about the majority of the population. Lebanon, a country which has a population, I think the estimate now is about 4.5 million, has at least a million, perhaps a million and a half Syrian refugees. So, it’s considered to be the normal way that live goes on. Those countries have to bear this incredible burden and yet the former colonizers who have combated and caused such damage in the region, I’m talking about one percent or half of one percent in the case of the United States, far less even than that.

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