The Problem of Asylum Seekers

What if we were America?

What do you mean? America is a huge country, we can't be America!

No, no, I don't mean if we were America in terms of the size of the country, but in terms of demography.

When you say "American", is it any different whether you are English, French, Scottish, or Turkish?

Everyone who has acquired American citizenship is an American!

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Happy to be a Turk!

Isn't this the same motto?

Everyone who feels himself/herself a Turk is a Turk!

Being a Turk means being bound to the Republic of Turkey with the bond of citizenship.

I condemn, in the simplest terms of the word, the meaningless debate of the last days, that is, those who say that we should call Turkish people instead of Turks. I feel like saying worse things for those who think this way, but this is not the place.

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Citizens of the Republic of Turkey are called Turks!

This is not an ethnic belonging!

Yes, there are Turks who have other states in the world, I hope that one day a Turkish union will be established with all its conditions and we Turks will have a more audible voice among the world states with our power arising from our unity.

I sincerely hope that the Turkic Union, which is currently established only as a cultural union, will become a much more comprehensive union in the future.

However, this unity need not be in the form of a single state.

Our history has shown us that we have no friends other than ourselves, but those who prevented the continuity of our states were different Turkic tribes.

In other words, it was we Turks who destroyed the established Turkish states.

Therefore, with the experience we have gained from history, I personally do not think that there is a need for a single Turkish state.

This should be a unity of power! A unity in every sense!

First and foremost a unity of culture!

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Therefore, if we focus on our own state, the Republic of Turkey:

Do we say that ethnically Turkey is the homeland of Turks?

Or do we say that the citizens of the Republic of Turkey are called Turks?

I think this is a situation where there is some confusion.

If we interpret Turkishness within the scope of Atatürk's nationalism, "Happy to be a Turk!" should be the definition of Turkishness that we all accept.

This means nation state! In other words, there should not be a racial Turkishness, but a political Turkishness.

Our most important goal should be to show all kinds of reactions and punish those who want to make ethnic discrimination within themselves, and to seek the means of unity as a nation by saying that we are all citizens of the Republic of Turkey, therefore we are all Turks.

But there are those who feel themselves ethnically different, some of them have different mother tongues!

What about these?

Yes, this is also true.

However, the language of the state is Turkish and everyone has to learn this language in schools if they do not know it!

Because it is only in Turkish that they will be able to handle all their affairs, especially at the state level.

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In fact, with today's technologies, language barriers between people have almost disappeared!

You speak to the phone, the phone instantly translates what you say in whatever language you say and says what you say in the desired language.

When these smart programmes are further developed, they will probably be able to translate in our own voice.

In other words, I think that language differences will not be a problem after a while.

In this case, whoever wants to speak in whatever language they want!

Actually, I think I'm a bit used to it here, I don't find it strange. Just today, a Chinese couple was shopping in the supermarket and they were speaking Chinese among themselves.

I don't speak Chinese, but it doesn't bother me either.

People here speak many different languages among themselves.

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But since the official language of the state is Turkish, education must also be in Turkish!

Look, there are different opinions on this issue too.

It is said that the child's brain is very inclined to learn several languages together at a young age.

I made this mistake with our daughters, and when I was very busy with work due to my profession, the girls learnt only their mother tongue. That is Russian!

For myself, I can say that I feel the comfort of being able to speak three languages along with my mother tongue, I can say that when I watch some American films in their original form, if there are Russians licking in America in the film and they start speaking Russian among themselves, for example, I don't even notice it, I can say that I don't even notice it, I realise later that they are speaking Russian.

I would like to say that I think whoever wants to receive education in an additional language should do so. Adequate facilities can be provided for those who wish to do so. Let them receive education in both languages at the same time. Believe me, this will not be a problem for children. It is possible to learn both languages as if they were mother tongues at an early age. There are children who can speak four or five languages like their mother tongue, let alone two.

It would be sufficient for the state to open private schools with instructors who can speak both languages they wish to learn.

I think there is nothing to be afraid of.

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However, if you are aware, at the beginning of the article, I asked a question about what would happen if we were America.

What I meant by this question was to talk a little bit about the immigrant issue.

Do you know how many immigrants come to America every year and how many of them become American citizens?

To be honest, I don't know exactly how many of them become citizens, but an average of one million permanent resident immigrants apply for citizenship every year, and the vast majority of them become citizens.

Their previous president, Donald Trump, said that he would build a wall on the Mexican border in order to prevent illegal entry. America already distributes a lot of citizenship every year through legal means!

As far as I understand, undocumented immigrants pose a problem for America like every country.

There is a site called www.usdebtclock.org, this site is a site where almost all kinds of relevant information about America, including both financial issues and population issues, are constantly updated online.

If you go to this site and look at it, you can witness for yourself that the population of the United States of America is increasing almost every second.

The reason for this rapid increase is not only new births, but also new citizenship, because almost every second the number of taxpayers is also increasing.

If America is not afraid to grant new citizenships, why are we?

Let's set up our system properly and set strict conditions for granting citizenship. Let's not just hand out citizenship with money as we do now, let's make it compulsory for those who want to become citizens to comply with these obligations.

After that, anyone who wants to become a citizen can become a citizen, provided that they comply with the rules!

And what was the first rule?

Happy to be a Turk!

Turkish citizenship should be something that can be obtained by those who have internalised this!

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Let's reduce all these asylum seekers and temporary migrants to the dimensions of the rules of the world states on these issues.

For example, if camps are to be set up at the borders, let's set up camps and keep only those who are not yet registered in these camps. Let Europe pay for it, OK, but let's not have asylum seekers who are not recognised as such wandering around the country.

Let's give residence permits to those who will be given residence permits and allow them to move around the country on condition that they obey whatever the law and rules are.

Even in Russia, I see it every day from my window, the police are always holding someone in the metro and taking them to the police station.

Most of them are citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which they call SNG here, probably because they were together in the former Soviet period but today they are separate states. In other words, most of them are Uzbeks and Tajiks who somehow came to Russia to work.

Every day they send many of them back to their home countries because they do not have the labour permit documents they are obliged to have here, or if their documents have expired, for example.

In other words, there is a humanitarian dimension to this, there is also a need dimension, but letting asylum seekers into the country uncontrolled makes everything worse.

If you need cheap labour, you give them the necessary permits and ensure that they contribute to the labour force under the registry accordingly.

When you say "let me go to the meadow and let my God take care of me", as is the case with us, the mountains are full of unregistered migrants.

I will not mention here how they punish each other.

If you need additional labour force, you first integrate the migrants, then maybe you can employ them without making them citizens.

But you do not allow uncontrolled immigration by saying that these are war victims, we are humanitarian. You shouldn't.

Even granting citizenship has certain rules.

Yes, I don't think we need it, but if necessary, you can give regular citizenship like America. If you need it, why not?

If you want, you can open your door to anyone who will accept this country as their own country, who will serve for this country like you and me, and most importantly, who will say I am a Turk.

There will only be rules for such things!

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The migrant problem is currently Turkey's second most important problem after the economic problem.

Turkey is the country that can best solve this problem with its humanitarian dimensions.

Because there are very few countries in the world that have an imperial past like us.

So we know the rules of living together.

Also, unlike many European states, we have a nation with a conscience.

However, as I said, everything should be in accordance with the rules, as this government is doing, tomorrow we will have to deal with problems that cannot be overcome.

Let me end this article by saying that we need to start looking for ways to overcome this problem in the lightest way.

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow.