Turkey is witnessing a significant increase in the number of Syrian refugees returning home. The Turkish Interior Minister attributes this surge to the recent Islamist rebel victory in Damascus.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya claimed on Sunday that 7,621 Syrian refugees 'returned voluntarily' from Turkey between December 9-13. At least three million Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011. Yerlikaya said last week that the number of Syrians returning home from Turkey surged by 150 percent to 200 percent per day after Islamist rebels reached Damascus . 'In 2024, we were seeing an average of 11,000 voluntary returns per month.
However, since yesterday afternoon, that number has increased significantly, with border crossing numbers rising as well,' he said. Yerlikaya said last week that border crossing capacity would be increased from 3,000 per day to more than 15,000 per day to handle the expected wave of Syrians returning home. Crowds at Turkey’s five existing border crossings into Syria were heavy but manageable, and a sixth crossing would soon be opened to 'ease the traffic.' Turkish officials have been unsubtly hinting that Syrian refugees should return home at the earliest opportunity now that Assad is gone. Turkish sentiment against the huge number of refugees absorbed by their country has been steadily growing as the years of unrest in Syria wore on. The opposition is even more exasperated with the Syrian presence than President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP party. Last week, several mayors belonging to the opposition CHP party spoke to some Syrian refugees who said the decision to return home was not easy. Most of them said they wanted to return as soon as possible, but life in war-ravaged Syria might still be too difficult and dangerous for their families. 'There is still no water in many regions in Syria, electricity comes at certain times of the day. It is not even clear who will govern the country and how, but we need to return to get Syria back on its feet,' one refugee said. Refugees and their advocates were also apprehensive about the Islamist rebel coalition that seized power in Damascus
SYRIA TURKEY REFUGEES CIVIL WAR DAMASCUS
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