Orbán: Turkey instrumental in stopping ‘waves of migrants’

Turkey is instrumental is stopping the “wave of millions of migrants” on their way towards Hungary and Europe, although the Hungarian opposition cannot or will not understand that, Prime minister Viktor Orbán told public Kossuth Radio on Friday.

Any attempt to remove Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s from office would be in the interest of “pro-migration forces”, Orbán said in an interview after Erdogan’s visit to Budapest on Thursday.

By undermining Turkey’s “strength, balance, security, reliability and order”, pro-migration forces aim to “realise their dream” of having millions of migrants flood Europe, he said, adding that US financier George Soros had outlined such a goal “in his famous plan”, arguing that Europe needed the influx of one million migrants a year.

As long as Erdogan is in office and Europe succeeds in striking a deal with him, he will “open the gates to Syria rather than Europe”, Orbán said. “Until then, we are safe.”

Hungary is providing substantial financial and military aid to Kurds living in Iraq, Orbán noted.

Regarding recent visits of President Vladimir Putin and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to Budapest, Orbán said Hungary fell within a geographical area defined by Istanbul, Moscow and Berlin. Hungary’s interest is that those countries in turn have an interest in Hungary’s success, he said. Shared interests based on mutual respect should be at the root of those relations, so no party feels threatened by the other, he said.

The Hungarian public supports a foreign policy based on national values and prompted by national interests, he said. Earlier, foreign policy was rooted in “a feeling of inferiority”, he said, adding that the present approach “corresponds to Hungarian instincts better”.

Regarding the issue of Hungarian minorities living in Transcarpathia, western Ukraine, Orbán said that minority “has been abandoned and has a difficult life, so its claim to Hungarian government support is justified.”

Ukraine is a signatory to an agreement with NATO stating it intention to strengthen its relations with the military alliance. In that document, Ukraine pledged not to curb the rights of minorities in the country, Orbán said. Ukraine has failed to keep that promise, he said. When Hungary raises its voice on the issue, it also promotes the cohesion and stability of NATO, he added. Orbán said he hoped that the policies of the recently elected Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, would not be anti-Hungarian.

Regarding the statement of András Fekete-Győr, the leader of Momentum, on supporting a Liberal Romanian candidate in the presidential campaign instead of a Hungarian one, Orbán said such a policy was built on an internationalist, cosmopolitan world view reminiscent of the Liberal SZDSZ party of the 1990s. “Ours is not like that; it is rooted in national values.”