Ankara on Friday revealed that more than one million Syrians have voluntarily returned to their country, but Turkish authorities continue to deport Syrians who have not submitted all their documents for residency permits.
On Friday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement that more than one million Syrians have voluntarily returned to the cleared areas in northern Syria, including more than 470,000 who have returned to the Idlib region alone.
On the other hand, Syrian activists revealed that Turkish authorities deported on Thursday six Syrian families through the Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) border crossing north of Hasakah Governorate in northeast Syria.
The deportations of Syrians from Türkiye increased after the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 28. Since, Ankara authorities have become strict about residency conditions.
About 450 Syrians have been forcibly deported from Türkiye to Syria through Bab Al-Salama crossing in the last two weeks.
Separately, the Defense Ministry said Türkiye has carried out 320 operations and “neutralized” a total of 794 “terrorists” since Jan. 1.
Turkish forces are constantly launching operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, and are also targeting Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) sites in northern Syria, considered by Ankara as a proxy for the PKK and as the main Kurdish armed group in Syria.
