Turkey says over 25,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall

ISTANBUL: More than 25,000 Syrians have returned home from Turkey since Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by Islamist-led HTS rebels, Turkey’s interior minister said Tuesday.

Turkey is home to nearly three million refugees who fled the civil war that broke out in 2011, and whose presence has been an issue for president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

“The number of people returning to Syria in the last 15 days has exceeded 25,000,” Ali Yerlikaya told the official Anadolu news agency.

Ankara is in close touch with Syria’s new leaders and now focussing on the voluntary return of Syrian refugees, hoping the shift in power in Damascus will allow many of them to return home.

Yerlikaya said a migration office would be established in the Turkish embassy and consulate in Damascus and Aleppo so that the records of returning Syrians could be kept.

Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus, nearly a week after Assad was toppled by forces backed by Ankara, and 12 years after the diplomatic outpost was shuttered early in Syria’s civil war.

Yerlikaya said one person from each family will be given the right to enter and exit three times from Jan 1 to July 2025 under regulations to be drafted upon Erdogan’s instructions.

Syrians returning to their country will be able to take their belongings and cars with them, he added.