Ankara may call for relocation of Syrian refugees from disaster zone

The Turkish government is considering relocating hundreds of thousands of Syrians from 10 of the country's provinces after the twin earthquakes that have so far killed more than 30,000 people in Turkey, Middle East Eye's Istanbul correspondent Levent Kemal reported. 

The two massive earthquakes have not simply affected the lives of millions of people in northern Syria. They have caused tremendous destruction in a region where Syrians fleeing their country's civil war had found a new home: southern Turkey.  

Syrian sources have told Middle East Eye that the Syrian-Turkish Joint Committee, created in 2019 on behalf of the Turkish interior ministry and the opposition Syrian National Coalition, will soon call for Syrians to relocate to different cities. 

One of the sources, speaking anonymously, said the exact number of Syrian casualties in Turkey is not clear yet. They added that the highest number of casualties is expected in the southern Turkish province of Hatay.

“As you know, some neighbourhoods there have been called Syrian towns. These neighbourhoods have been destroyed completely,” the source said. 

A separate Turkish source with knowledge of the situation told MEE that 1,126 Syrian bodies were delivered to Syria through the border last week.

The source said he believes around one fourth of the dead in Hatay are Syrians. 

Turkey is the foreign country most impacted by the decade-long conflict in Syria. Over three and a half million Syrians are living in Turkey under temporary protection.

In some border towns, Syrians have become the majority. According to the Turkey-based Association for Refugees, 1.75 million Syrians have been living in the 10 earthquake-hit provinces according to the December 2022 statistics. 

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Turkey earthquake: Ankara may call for relocation of Syrian refugees from disaster zone