Nearly 31,000 Syrians return home since Assad’s fall: Interior Minister Yerlikaya
Syrian refugees who lives in Türkiye wait with their belongings in a queue at Cilvegozu crossborder gate before entering in Syria at Reyhanli distict in Hatay, Türkiye on December 9, 2024. (AFP Photo)
Nearly 31,000 Syrians have returned to their homeland since the fall of strongman Bashar al-Assad, Türkiye’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Friday, marking a rise of about 5,000 in just three days.
“The number of people who went back is 30,663,” Yerlikaya told TGRT Haber, Turkish news channel, adding that “30 percent” of those returning had been born in Türkiye.
Türkiye, which has hosted nearly three million refugees since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, saw a renewed hope for returns following the fall of Assad.
Earlier on Tuesday, Yerlikaya stated that more than 25,000 Syrians had returned, according to remarks made to the Anadolu news agency. He noted that Syrians would be allowed to leave and re-enter Türkiye up to three times during the first half of 2025.
‘Migration management office’ in Aleppo
Yerlikaya also announced plans to open “a migration management office” in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, where many of the refugees in Türkiye originally hail from. No further details were provided on this initiative.
In addition, Türkiye is set to reopen its consulate general in Aleppo “in a few days,” echoing earlier statements made this week by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Türkiye reopened its Damascus embassy on December 14, six days after Assad’s regime fell, becoming the first nation to reopen its diplomatic mission there.
Türkiye had closed its embassy in Damascus on March 26, 2012, a year after Syria’s civil war erupted.
Assad, Syria’s regime leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime forces took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, effectively ending the Baath Party’s nearly six-decade rule.
The takeover occurred after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured key cities in a lightning offensive lasting less than two weeks.
Israel continues to occupy territories in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, and rejects calls to withdraw or recognize an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on pre-1967 borders.
