News regarding refugee centers in Pakistan, Turkey declared fake

Last updated on: 24 August,2021 08:11 pm

News regarding refugee centers in Pakistan, Turkey declared fake

ANKARA (Web Desk) – Turkish Foreign Minister (FM) Mevlut Cavusoglu has termed the news regarding refugee centers in Pakistan and Turkey as fake.

The Turkish minister said that the news about refugee centers in Pakistan and Turkey has nothing to do with reality. He expressed these views during a joint press conference with Uruguay Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Reacting to the false propaganda about the establishment of refugee centers in Pakistan and Turkey, he declared the news as completely untrue. “The words uttered in the news were not fulfilled by the British Ministry of Defence. The BBC realized the mistake and immediately deleted the tweet,” he added.

Earlier, acknowledging the mistake, BBC Turkish corrected its story and issued an apology. "We would like to point out that this is not actually from the statements of the British defence secretary,” said BBC Turkish.

“Information mentioned in (British outlets) The Guardian and Mail on Sunday newspapers as a statement of intent that Turkey and Pakistan were also considered, with reference to the British Ministry of Defence, and this news was mistakenly attributed to the minister," it added.

As the Taliban’s recent rapid takeover of Afghanistan spurred a refugee exodus, Turkish officials have stressed that Turkey – which hosts more refugees than any other country in the world – cannot and will not accept a new wave of Afghan refugees.

While addressing a news conference, the Turkish FM said, “So far we have evacuated 404 people from Afghanistan. Of these, 61 are our citizens.” The rest are citizens of other countries. The number of our citizens in the country is about 4,500. We have contacted everyone.”

He further said that a large section of Turkish citizens did not want to return but some of them are changing their minds. “We have issued the necessary warnings and continue to do so. Currently, about 200 Turkish citizens have expressed a desire to return,” he added.