The Impact of Syrian Refugees on the Economy

It was announced by the then Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdağ that the expenditure on Syrian refugees was 30 billion dollars as of November 2017. Since no official statement was made after that, the expenditures made since then are not clear.

prof. Dr. Ümit Özdağ announced that in 2020, the money that can be determined to have been spent on Syrian refugees reached 58.2 billion dollars by the end of 2019. Özdağ claimed that the money to be spent on Syrian refugees in the years 2020-2021 would reach 21 billion dollars. In other words, according to Özdağ, the cost of Syrian refugees to the Turkish economy by the end of 2021 is around 80 billion.

According to Turkey's official data released in 2017, $8,333 per person has been spent on Syrians since 2011. Assuming and accepting that there are 5.5 million Syrians in Turkey, an expenditure of approximately 45 billion dollars emerges. The fact that 45 billion dollars was spent between 2011 and 2017 shows that approximately 7.5 billion dollars was spent every year in the 6-year period. When the last 4 years are added, it turns out that 30 billion dollars have been spent, which confirms the claim that Ümit has spent about 80 billion dollars.

As a result, about 80 billion dollars of our money went to Syrian refugees.

Now, if we assume our population of 80 million, our per capita expenditure on refugees is;

80 billion/80 million=1000$. With the dollar exchange rate reaching 13.5, this figure becomes approximately 13.500₺.

In other words, every individual in this country has given 13,500₺ to Syrians since 2011.

Well, let's see what could have been done with this 80 billion dollars spent.

Each of them can cost 2.5 million dollars;

32,000 hospitals or schools or cinemas or theaters or libraries or hotels or factories could be built. For a clear understanding of the number, if we divide the figure of 32.000 into 81 provinces, each means nearly 400 facilities, you have to consider the size of the amount.

As a result; If we had not been so involved in the events in Syria from the beginning, if we could stand fair and equal to all elements, if we could internalize the principle of peace at home, peace in the world, if we did not implement othering policies abroad that give a premium at home, we would not be one of the components that caused a civil war on our side and millions of refugees as a result. . Thus, the money spent on refugees would remain in our pockets or we would receive better service from the state as much as this amount.

If we attribute the rise of the exchange rate not to foreign powers, but to wrong decisions in foreign policy and economy, we would at least have made the diagnosis correctly. Otherwise, if the diagnosis is wrong, the treatment will not respond, the court will unfortunately go away, and we will all become poorer day by day.