Turkey cannot take new refugee burden, foreign minister says

Turkey cannot take the burden of a new migrant wave from Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Aug. 29 after talks with his German counterpart.

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"As Turkey, we have sufficiently carried out our moral and humanitarian responsibilities regarding migration," Çavuşoğlu said, speaking in a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

"It is out of the question for us to take an additional refugee burden," Çavuşoğlu said.

"There have been allegations that especially the U.S. and the U.K. will keep Afghans in Turkey for a certain period after evacuating them from the country. Those countries denied this," he said.

There has never been a proposal from any country to keep the evacuated people in Turkey, Çavuşoğlu said.

Telling how 3.5 million people were displaced in Afghanistan, he said: "If the migration flow from Afghanistan reaches crisis levels, not only the countries in the region but also everyone including Europe will be affected."

He urged countries to take lessons from the Syrian crisis and come up with solutions together.

Turkey - which already hosts 4 million refugees, more than any country in the world - is taking new security measures on its borders to prevent a fresh influx of migrants.

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On the Taliban's proposal that Turkey could run Hamid Karzai International Airport in the capital Kabul, Çavuşoğlu said it is a serious matter.

Turkey is evaluating the proposal carefully, he said, adding that they will do more detailed evaluations in the days to come.

Germany thanks Turkey for helping with evacuation

For his part, Maas said Turkey has made an important contribution with its help with evacuations from the...