Ümit Özdağ, the deputy Chairman of the İyi Party, warned that Turkey risked becoming "a Middle Eastern country" because of the influx of refugees.[5] The current mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu has complained of Arabic signs on shop fronts, and said Syrians refugees were stealing jobs from locals. He also told BBC that “There are some parts of Turkey where the refugees outnumber the actual residents.”[6]