Erdogan unveils plans to send 1 million Syrians back as anti-refugee sentiment escalates
As anti-refugee sentiment rises higher in Turkey during the Eid, Erdogan pledges a build-and-return project enabling more than a million Syrians to return “voluntarily” to northern Syria.
The date on the screen shows May 3, 2043, as a Syrian party wins the elections in Turkey and its chair declares Arabic the official language of Turkey.
In the next scene, the camera pans to a young man who laments his job as a cleaner in a hospital run by a Syrian man, where he is not allowed to speak Turkish. Then he asks his parents, “How could you let that happen even though you had been warned over and over that the Syrians were carrying out a silent invasion?”
The nine-minute film, “Silent Invasion,” faintly resembles French author Michel Houllebecq’s controversial satire, “Submission,” where a Muslim party wins elections in France and completely alters life in the secular republic. It also pushes the fear buttons of Turkey’s anti-migration bloc: It portrays a future where Turks are chased on the streets by Syrian gangs and deprived of white-collar jobs, ethnic Syrian politicians proudly declare that the Turkish territory is historically theirs and the Turkish language is on the verge of extinction.
In the second part of the short film, the camera pans to director Hande Karacasu, who explains that the “uncontrolled but strategic” migration wave that started in 2011 with the Syrian war has now made Turkey home to “8 million Syrians,” more than twice the 4 million figure given by Turkish and international organizations.
