'Refugees' safe return as important as fighting terror'

ANKARA 

Safe return of refugees and establishing a permanent stability in Syria is as important as fight against terrorism, the Turkish president said on Tuesday.

Addressing the first-ever Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “Formulas to keep refugees in their own lands and repatriate those in Turkey need to be implemented.”

Erdogan also said that Turkey is currently hosting 5 million refugees -- with 3.7 of them Syrian -- and never forcefully repatriated any of them.

“Countries with more means put limits on refugees, while Turkey opened its arms to everyone without discriminating,” he added.

“EU promised