TheTurkish government has strengthened its security in order to keep Afghan refugees from entering the country following the Taliban’s capture of Kabul on August 15. 

Turkish Democracy Project Executive Director Madeleine Joelson and Senior Advisor Diliman Abdulkader have both condemned the behaviour.

Joelson said that It is unclear whether the Erdogan government has any plans to grant them even safe passage across the border into Europe.

“Cynical in its own right, this decision could prove disastrous if the refugee population on the Turkish border grows to the numbers which are naturally to be expected. Erdogan’s military forces have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to disregard the humanity of vast populations of people when doing so is politically efficacious,” Joelson stated. 

She stated that the crisis once again underscores the importance of holding Turkey accountable in an effort to halt its drift towards authoritarianism.

Abdulkader says that the Kurdish people of Syria and Iraq have been ‘mercilessly targeted’ by the Turkish military, who have killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more in an ongoing illegal invasion, occupation, and expansion into Kurdistan.

“In all that time, the international community has done nothing. They have allowed Turkey, a nominal democracy, to engage in war crimes reminiscent of those committed only by the most barbarous of authoritarian states, while, on the domestic front the Erdogan government has ramped up persecution of political opponents, journalists, ethnic minorities, women and the LGBTQ community,”  Abdulkader stated. 

Abdulkader believes that If the international community bands together at this crucial moment to support civil society in Turkey and deter it from its current path, Turkey may yet be brought fully back into the fold of the western democracy.