Davutoglu: Syrian refugee influx to continue if chemical attack ignored

Countries hosting fleeing Syrians may face a higher numbers of refugees if there is no international action against what is said to be a chemical attack by the regime in the suburbs of Damascus last month, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has warned. Speaking on Wednesday at a meeting of countries neighboring Syria in Geneva, hosted by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Davutoglu expressed his fears on the influx of Syrian refugees with the latest chemical attack. "When civilians in Syria were hit by sniper fire and simple weapons, there were only 7,500 refugees in Turkey. When Syrian cities were hit by tanks and shells in 2012, the numbers of refugees exceeded 20,000. In 2013, with attacks made with air bombardment and Scud misses, this number increased tenfold and reached 500,000. If the same trend continues and there is no international reaction to the chemical attack that happened two weeks ago, we are afraid that countries neighboring Syria will face much bigger numbers of refugees," the foreign minister said. Stating that the tension in Syria is rising day by day, Davutoglu noted that the killings in Syria over the last couple of years could have been prevented by taking action during the first phase of violence. "If the international community, especially the UN Security Council, had been united during the early stages of the escalation in tension, today we wouldn't have all these difficult choices on the table," he said. "If the right answer isn't given to the ones who commit this crime, there will be more crimes like these ones that have happened over the last two-and-a-half years," Davutoglu said. Bringing up Turkey's open door policy to refugees, the foreign minister emphasized that it is a part of Turkish culture and duty to host Syrians, just as it is for the Lebanese and Jordanians, but he pointed out that it is also the duty of international organizations. He discussed the worst-case scenario for those hosting refugees of the civil war. "There is a limit to how many refugees a country can take in. In the coming months, if we were to take 500,000 more people fleeing from chemical attacks, what would be the state of our capacity for refugees?" Davutoglu asked in an attempt to draw the attention of foreign countries and international organizations to the refugee crisis. He elaborated on the situation of refugees in Turkey, indicating that there are 22 asylum camps hosting 201,000 Syrians, and there are 300,000 more refugees who are not staying in the camps. The foreign minister also said that there are more than 5,000 Syrian babies that were born in Turkey and that have never seen their homeland. According to Davutoglu, there are 34,000 Syrians receiving care in hospitals and more than 42,000 students being educated in camp schools. Touching on the economic dimension of the Syrian issue, the Turkish foreign minister noted that Turkey hasn't been given enough support from the international community and that the cost of hosting refugees is increasing day by day. He further said that Turkey has spent $2 billion on its Syrian refugees and received $135 million aid, underlining that they can't see the end of expenses to care for the refugees and that neighboring countries to Syria need a new roadmap and approach. In a press conference following the ministerial meeting, a Chinese reporter criticized the statements of Davutoglu by asking why he attended the UN meeting if he doesn't believe in the acts and decision of UN. The Turkish foreign minister replied: "We have respect for the flag of the UN. However, there are hundreds of thousands people who have been killed." Inviting the correspondents to come to the refugee camps in Turkey and see how serious the issue is, the foreign minister emphasized that this isn't just a national concern of Turkey and it needs to be a concern of humankind as there is a humanitarian crime taking place. The two-year Syrian conflict has escalated, driving 2 million refugees abroad, uprooting 5 million within the country and taking at least 100,000 lives. In response to the same Chinese reporter's question on why Turkey insists on having its own reports on chemical weapons, Davutoglu underlined the fact that the UN inspection team arrived to the areas where sarin gas was used four days after the chemical attack took place and that the Syrian government launched a missile attack on those same areas to erase the remnants of chemicals.