January 16, 1952 Turkish Refugees

January 16, 1952 Turkish Refugees

Perhaps an even better analogy can be seen in Turkey’s integration of 150,000 Turkish refugees from Bulgaria in 1950.  The difference between the Turks’ handling of their refugees and the Arab states’ treatment of the Palestinians was the attitude of the respective governments.

Turkey has had a bigger refugee problem than either Syria or Lebanon and almost as big as Egypt has….But you seldom hear about them because the Turks have done such a good job of resettling them….The big difference is in spirit.  The Turks, reluctant as they were to take on the burden, accepted it as a responsibility and set to work to clean it up as fast as possible.

Source:  Des Moines Register editorial, (January 16, 1952).