“It is in Hungary’s interests for the Turks to solve the immigration problem in the direction of Syria, and not towards Europe”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to public media on Tuesday in Baku, where he is attending a session of the Turkic Council as part of the Hungarian delegation led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Mr. Szijjártó, who held bilateral talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in the Azerbaijani capital, said: “With relation to Turkey’s operations in Syria, the Hungarian government need only take one thing into consideration: the interests of the Hungarian people”. “And Hungarian national interests dictate that we must avoid hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of illegal immigrants from appearing at Hungary’s southern border, and that we must avoid having to forcibly hold back hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of illegal immigrants at Hungary’s southern border”, he continued.

“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also described the situation clearly: if he cannot resettle immigrants who have arrived from Syria back into Syria, then he will have to open the gates towards Europe”, he pointed out. “If the question is put to us, the Hungarians, as whether we would like Turkey to resettle immigrants in Syria or open the gates towards Europe, then our response is clear: Turkey should resettle the immigrants back into Syria and not open the gates to Europe to four million immigrants”, Mr. Szijjártó explained. “If these four million immigrants set out towards Europe, they will have to be stopped at Hungary’s southern border, and it would be better to avoid this”, he emphasised.

The Minister declared that the Hungarian government’s way of thinking with relation to immigration is absolutely clear: the right to migrate is not included among the fundamental human rights. “It is, however, a fundamental human right for everyone to be able to live in peace and security in their own homeland, and the conditions for this must be created”, Mr. Szijjártó added.

“If Turkey establishes a safe zone in Syria, then Hungary is also happy to cooperate with Turkey to enable families who have had to leave Syria to resettle there”, he stated. “This is our policy: assistance must be taken to where the trouble is, instead of bring the trouble here, where there isn’t any trouble”, he said.

Mr. Szijjártó pointed out that the Turkish President has made it clear: Turkey has spent 40 billion dollars to date on the four million immigrants who are currently living on Turkey’s territory, and he must now respond to Turkish public opinion with relation to how long he wishes to continue doing this. “Accordingly, he has chosen the solution of resettling the Syrian immigrants in secure conditions”, the Minister said, closing his statement.

(MTI)