The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

In Turkey, Syrian Refugees Have Become An Electoral Issue In Spite Of Themselves

Youssef runs a small wood and plastic stall where he sells his egg, onion and cold fries sandwiches to anyone who comes along. He has been settled here, at the end of the long, flat, straight road linking Gaziantep to Syria, for almost ten years now. Well into his thirties, he speaks only a few words of Turkish but is happy to be on this side of the border. The war, the systematic repression of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime pushed him to cross the 900 kilometer front line which separates Turkey from Syria.

Today, he can no longer move from his small border town of Kilis, assigned, like all Syrian refugees, to his commune of residence. He pretends not to complain. He just says he’s determined not to go back there, on the other side, before feverishly averting his eyes and teasing his bread.

The horizon of the young man is the border post of Oncüpinar, “the pioneer source”, in Turkish. Five sentry boxes, a handful of customs officers and fully loaded trucks headed for Syria. Nearly 200 vehicles and 300 Turkish workers thus cross this crossing point every day – one of the seven posts open between the two countries. A line that perfectly illustrates the growing role played by Ankara beyond its border.

Since the entry of Turkish tanks into Syria for the first time six years ago, the military operation intended to push back the Kurdish militants of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), considered a terrorist organization by Ankara, s t has been transformed, over time and multiple interventions, into a mission affecting practically all spheres of security and the daily life of some two million Syrians living in the three enclaves controlled by Ankara’s forces. People pay there in Turkish money, receive treatment in Turkish hospitals, have Turkish electricity for lighting and schoolchildren learn Turkish as a second language.

Increasingly visible hostility

For six months, Turkey has not welcomed any Syrian refugees on its soil. The gigantic center of Öncüpinar, hastily built in 2012, is empty. Located opposite Youssef’s stand, this container camp of more than 60 hectares was completely evacuated in the summer of 2019. Officially, the authorities had mentioned the high operating costs and the prospects for integrating Syrians into Turkish society. , outside the camps.

According to Omar Kadkoy, a policy analyst at Turkey’s Economic Policy Research Foundation, the decision had less to do with the government’s desire to develop a real integration policy than with the contextualization of a potential return of refugees to Syria.

 

 

Source: The Globe Echo

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of the Observatory.