Erdogan visits Syrian refugees and tells them: victory is close

Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday vowed to defend the rights of the Syrian people, saying they were close to achieving success. He was greeted by joyous Syrians at the largest refugee camp near the border.

The Syrian regime is holding parliamentary elections today, in a vote both the opposition and foreign governments have described as a sham.

Mr Erdogan has urged Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to quit and has encouraged the Syrian opposition to unify and present a credible political alternative.

“Bashar is losing blood day by day,” Mr Erdogan said in an address to thousands of jubilant Syrians at the camp near the town of Kilis. “Sooner or later, those who have oppressed our Syrian brothers will be accounted for before their nation. Your victory is close.”

Many refugees used their mobile phones to film or take pictures of Mr Erdogan, who addressed the crowd from the top of a bus as snipers stood on rooftops. The camp, housing more than 9,500 refugees, came under cross-border fire by Syrian forces last month in an incident that left two refugees dead.

It is the most organised and well-equipped camp: refugees stay in white temporary housing units instead of tents as in nine other camps along the border. It looks like a small town with wide streets, soup kitchens, a health clinic and even a makeshift barber shop. A mosque with a minaret is located just outside the camp.

Mr Erdogan assured the refugees that they are Turkey’s guests until they decide to return home in safety, as the refugees burst into applause. Mr Erdogan thanked them with a few words in Arabic.

Turkey hosts around 23,000 Syrian refugees who have fled Mr Assad’s crackdown, which is estimated to have left more than 9,000 people dead.

Today’s election of a 250-seat parliament comes three months after the adoption of a new constitution that allows the formation of political parties to compete with the ruling Baath party.

Mr Assad’s opponents say reforms without their input are a farce and elections cannot be held under the threat of guns. The UN-brokered truce last month has failed to halt a brutal regime crackdown on the 14-month-old uprising against Mr Assad despite the presence of foreign observers sent to monitor compliance.

“We think the elections have no credibility at all in the middle of a situation where the regime is killing the population,” said Bassma Kodmani, a spokeswoman for the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile. “It is an insult to the democratic process.”

Opposition leader Haytham Manna said, “We are against these elections because they don’t have any of the characteristics of free elections.” Mr Manna heads the National Co-ordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, which represents activists in Syria and in exile.

In Syria, anti-regime activists also said they rejected the vote and had seen very little government preparation for elections in some opposition areas.

In the southern town of Dael, residents prevented anyone from putting up election posters and instead put up photos of the 20 people from the city who have been killed in the uprising.

“They are our candidates for parliament,” said Adel, a local activist, referring to the dead. He declined to give his full name for fear of retribution.

Another activist, Fares Mohammed in the town of Zabadani north-west of Damascus, said residents there would hold a general strike.

Underscoring the continued violence, UN observers visited Zabadani and Dael yesterday, and regime forces fired randomly into Dael after they left, injuring three people, Adel said.

Since the outbreak of Syria’s popular revolt in March 2011, the regime has made a series of gestures to try to allay the crisis, but also kept up its attacks on centres of rebellion.