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Tulay Hatımoğulları Oruç, a Turkish member of parliament, criticized the Turkish government policy towards Syria in a speech that she had delivered in parliament. Hatımoğulları Oruç represents Turkey's Adana province on behalf of the opposition Halkların Demoratik Partisi (HDP). She said: "The gift that your Syria policy has given to Turkey has been Salafi-Jihadi gangs all along the border, extensions of Al-Qaeda and [Jabhat] Al-Nusra, and ISIS gangs all along the border. They are not only on the border. They are in the heart of Ankara, the heart of Istanbul, and the heart of Antakya."
On President Erdoğan's practice of opening the border to allow Syrian refugees try to enter Europe in order to pressure the EU, she said: "You use the refugees to blackmail the European Union." On the general state of the economy, she said: "This country's workers, farmers, villagers, citizens, and shopkeepers are hungry! You do not realize this. Fine! You are preparing your own end." She later criticized the government's policy on the eastern Mediterranean, as well as a recent diplomatic incident with Iran after President Erdoğan recited lines from a poem at a military parade in Baku, Azerbaijan, to celebrate Azerbaijan's victory over Armenia in Nagorno-Karabagh. For more about Erdogan's remarks, see MEMRI TV Clip No. 8530. Hatımoğulları Oruç's speech was uploaded to the HDP's official YouTube channel on December 14, 2020.
Tulay Hatımoğulları: "As you remember, in east Ghouta, a member of a Salafi-Jihadi gang that came to Idlib had said: 'If you abandon us in Idlib... If tomorrow, Russia forces you to ...'
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"[He said:] 'If you abandon us, we will be in Reyhanli [in Turkey] in two hours.' Look, today, the 'gift' that your [AKP's] Syria policy has given to Turkey has been Salafi-Jihadi gangs all along the border, extensions of Al-Qaeda and [Jabhat] Al-Nusra all along the border, and ISIS gangs all along the border. They are not only on the border — they are in the heart of Ankara, the heart of Istanbul, and the heart of Antakya. You have given this society the 'gift' of bombs that are ready to explode.
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"You use the refugees to blackmail the European Union. You have turned the refugees into a means to an end. Do not pretend that you love the refugees.
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"While this country is experiencing such an economic crisis — while you have sent fighters to Libya and financed them — this country's workers, farmers, villagers, citizens, and shopkeepers are hungry! You do not realize this. Fine! You are preparing your own end.
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"Look at the new trend. You made the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean boil and bubble, and you have achieved nothing. For example, you withdrew the Oruç Reis drillship. We do not know what happened to the 'Blue Homeland' strategy. [Admiral] Cihat Yayci, who is one of the fathers of this theory, quietly resigned, and it did not even make proper headlines. Here, the same mistake made in [former PM Ahmet Davutoğlo's book] Strategic Depth was made and continues to be made with regard to the Blue Homeland theory. And the price for this is being paid not only by you — you are making all of us pay the price.
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"The President goes to Azerbaijan and reads a poem, and things get messy. And, respected Foreign Minister, the task falls to you. Take note — the task of cleaning up after the President falls to you.
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"Turkey, and this government's one-man regime, with regard to America, the European Union, Russia, and Iran, has come to this point by surfing on crippled policies. You said that you were setting up a plan, but certainly, you yourselves have become the victims of your own plan. You have really played games with the destiny of the people and the country. You have set up no plan."
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