World reacts to refugee crisis 'only at doorstep'

By Sibel Ugurlu

ANKARA

Turkey's presidential spokesman accused the world powers on Tuesday of turning a blind eye to the refugee crisis unless it directly affected them, attributing the current state of global chaos and disorder to "power disequilibrium".

Writing for Turkey's Daily Sabah newspaper, Ibrahim Kalin said: "One of the worst refugee crises in recent history cannot be addressed in a way that befits human dignity because the powerful do not want to see it as a problem unless it reaches their doorsteps."

Kalin said the current state of chaos and disorder at the global level had many political and economic causes.

"The power disequilibrium that pits nation-states against one another easily creates tensions with far-reaching consequences," he said citing the Syrian civil war and unrest in Africa.

"In its sixth year, the conflict [Syrian civil war] has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and has become the most catastrophic war of the 21st century. The war does not end because rival powers need (and therefore sustain) a proxy war in the Levant to advance their interests and agendas."

Kalin said the problems of poverty, corruption and inequality in Africa "remain unresolved not because they are intractable, but because Africa is used as a continent of spoils and cheap labor to keep the wealthy nations of the world rich and secure."

The spokesman underlined that the gap between the rich and the poor kept growing as "there is no desire to settle on a solution".

Kalin said the chaos, disorder and destruction in the current world system caused pain and suffering, adding its socio-political and economic causes had to be addressed with political will and wisdom.

"But we also have to see the deeper causes of this state of affairs that dwarf our hope for the future of our planet and the integrity of our humanity.

"The simple truth is that we will not be able to establish political order and economic equality unless we establish the principles of harmony, peace and beauty within our own souls in the first place," he concluded.