Syrian Coalition: No Change in Turkey’s Position on Syria

Khaled Khoja, representative of the Syrian Coalition in Turkey, said that the Turkish government has repeatedly and officially reaffirmed its unshakeable support for the Syrian refugees and its commitment to the provision of health services, education and shelter.  “The Syrian Coalition, as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, keeps in touch with the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Custodian of the Syrian refugees and with a number of Turkish municipalities in this regard. The mayor of Gaziantep said that there is a number of Syrians in the city who are without shelter, and that a lot of houses are shared by more than one family, which prompted the Turkish government to move those who cannot afford renting a house to temporary state-run guesthouses or to refugee camps. A new refugee camp was set up in Gaziantep to accommodate nearly 25,000 refugees who will be moved from the tension areas.” Khoja pointed out that there is a continuous influx of Syrian refugees to Turkey in numbers that exceed the capacity of the refugee camps. It is estimated that Turkey is hosting around 1.3 million Syrian refugees, while the capacity of the refugee camps is limited to 250,000 refugees distributed on 22 camps. Approximately 300,000 Syrian refugees are living in Gaziantep alone, which has lately been witnessing tensions triggered by the murder of a Turkish landlord by a Syrian tenant. “We are hoping that these sorrowful events are not repeated, though they remain individual and cannot be generalized to all the Syrian people who were forced out of their homes to escape Assad’s daily massacres and bombardment. No doubt the Assad regime is the main culprit as it has been trying create hotbeds of tension between the Syrian and the Turkish peoples, as when agents of the Assad regime admitted they planned the car bomb attacks near the Syrian-Turkish borders.” Khoja hinted that the Syrian Coalition, in cooperation with the Friends of the Syrian people, has a plan to send the Syrian refugees back to some areas in Syria once the international protection is secured for these refugees. (Source: Syrian Coalition)