Türkiye to Repatriate Syrian Refugees to Regime-Controlled Areas

Syrian women cross the border to return to their country. (EPA)
Syrian women cross the border to return to their country. (EPA)
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Türkiye to Repatriate Syrian Refugees to Regime-Controlled Areas

Syrian women cross the border to return to their country. (EPA)
Syrian women cross the border to return to their country. (EPA)

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that Ankara is seeking to safely return Syrian refugees to areas controlled by the Syrian government, and not only to safe areas in northern Syria.

In an interview with a local channel on Friday, the Turkish FM said: “We want to return the Syrians to the places controlled by the regime as well, not just to the safe areas.”

Cavusoglu indicated that this issue was discussed with the Syrian government within the framework of the so-called Quad-like grouping with Russia, Iran, Syria and Türkiye.

“We agreed at the recent meeting of foreign ministers in Moscow held on May 10, to prepare the infrastructure in order to send the Syrians safely to the places controlled by the regime, and we decided to form a committee at the level of deputy ministers with the participation of the concerned institutions as well,” he noted.

“In other words, we are already determined to send the Syrians back. Secondly, we do not do this with a racist discourse, we do not forget that they are also human,” Cavusoglu added.

Recently the Syrian refugees file topped the political agenda in Türkiye, which headed Sunday for a decisive runoff vote after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could not win the presidential race in the first round. He will face the leader of the main opposition CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Ahead of the runoff, Kilicdaroglu stated that Türkiye would deport 10 million refugees and immigrants immediately if he wins the polls through negotiations with the Syrian government, European Union, and United Nations to ensure their voluntary and safe return.

For his part, Erdogan spoke a few days ago about the return of more than a million refugees to the areas controlled by Türkiye and its allied factions of the Syrian National Army (SNA) in northern Syria.

Meanwhile, Türkiye has launched the construction of nearly a quarter million housing units to resettle refugees in opposition-held northern Syria.

“Syrian refugees living in Türkiye will settle in the houses... as part of a dignified, voluntary safe return,” Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Wednesday at the launch of the project.

He said that “240,000 houses will be built" in the region, expressing hope that the project would be completed in three years.

On Friday, Cavusoglu said in his television interview that almost 553,000 Syrians had returned to areas where terrorism had defeated northern Syria.

He also pointed out that most of the Syrians in Türkiye want to return to their country, and stressed “the need to implement this process within the framework of international and Turkish laws.”



Egypt Hosts Hamas in New Gaza Ceasefire Push, Looting Halts Aid

Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
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Egypt Hosts Hamas in New Gaza Ceasefire Push, Looting Halts Aid

Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo

Hamas leaders held talks with Egyptian security officials on Sunday in a fresh push for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, two Hamas sources said, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene his security cabinet on the matter, two Israeli officials said.

The Hamas visit to Cairo was the first since the United States announced on Wednesday it would revive efforts in collaboration with Qatar, Egypt and Türkiye to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza, that would include a hostage deal.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said he thought the chances of a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza were now more likely.

"(Hamas) are isolated. Hezbollah is no longer fighting with them, and their backers in Iran and elsewhere are preoccupied with other conflicts," he told CNN on Sunday, Reuters reported.

"So I think we may have a chance to make progress, but I'm not going to predict exactly when it will happen ... we've come so close so many times and not gotten across the finish line."

Palestinians say Israel's operations on the northern edge of the enclave are part of a plan to clear people out through forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone. The Israeli military strongly denies this and says it is fighting against Hamas.

The military says it has killed hundreds of Hamas militants in that part of Gaza as it fights to stop the faction regrouping. It has also lost around 30 soldiers there in combat with Hamas fighters over the past two months, a relatively high death toll.