Syrian Refugees in Türkiye Plan Caravan to Reach EU

Refugees on their way from Türkiye to the Greek island of Lesbos across the Aegean Sea (AFP)
Refugees on their way from Türkiye to the Greek island of Lesbos across the Aegean Sea (AFP)
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Syrian Refugees in Türkiye Plan Caravan to Reach EU

Refugees on their way from Türkiye to the Greek island of Lesbos across the Aegean Sea (AFP)
Refugees on their way from Türkiye to the Greek island of Lesbos across the Aegean Sea (AFP)

A group of Syrian refugees in Türkiye is planning to form a caravan to reach the European Union, organizers said Saturday.

Plans are being drawn up online via a Telegram channel, set up six days ago and followed by almost 70,000 people. Organizers are calling on people to bring sleeping bags, tents, life jackets, water, canned food and first aid kits.

"We will announce it when it's time to go," one organizer, a 46-year-old refugee who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP.

Some of the organizers already lived in the EU, he added.

Organizers say the caravan will be split into groups of up to 50 people, each led by a supervisor.

"We have been in Türkiye for 10 years," read one message posted on the channel by an administrator. "We are protected... but Western countries must share the burden."

There are 3.7 million Syrian refugees officially living in Türkiye.

Syria's civil war, which began with a brutal crackdown of anti-government protests in 2011, has killed nearly half a million people and forced around half of the country's pre-war population from their homes.

Many Syrian refugees in Türkiye fear being sent back, especially after a recent shift in Türkiye's stance towards Damascus.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he is preparing to send back one million Syrian refugees on a voluntary basis.

In February and March 2020, tens of thousands of migrants approached the land border between Türkiye and Greece, after Erdogan threatened to keep the borders with Europe open.



Israel Says Apprehended Members of Iran-backed Cell in Syria

06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Israel Says Apprehended Members of Iran-backed Cell in Syria

06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Israel's military said Monday it had apprehended members of an Iran-backed cell in southern Syria, the second such operation it has announced in the past week.

Since the December overthrow of Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes primarily on military sites and carried out cross-border ground raids.

In a statement, the military said troops "completed an overnight operation to apprehend a cell that was operated by the Iranian Quds Force in the Tel Kudna area of southern Syria."

"For the second time in the past week... troops completed a targeted overnight operation and apprehended several operatives who posed a threat in the area," the statement added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israeli forces raided early Monday a village in the Quneitra countryside of southern Syria and "carried out searches targeting several homes, which ended with the arrest of two brothers".

On Wednesday, Israel's military said its forces had apprehended members of an Iranian-backed "terrorist cell" in southern Syria and seized weapons.