Türkiye: More than 550,000 refugees returned to peaceful areas of Syria

More than 550,000 Syrian refugees in Türkiye have returned to areas "cleared of terrorism," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, adding hundreds of thousands of houses are being built in northern Syria to resettle one million refugees.

"We sent back 553,000 immigrants to the regions we cleared of terrorism," Cavusoglu said in an interview broadcast live on the NTV channel on Friday.

He said 240,000 houses will be constructed in northern Syria, where one million refugees will be settled. "We want to send Syrians not only to the safe places, but also to areas controlled by the Assad regime," he said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday also noted that "with the support of Qatar, the work to build houses in Syria, which can accommodate one million refugees, continues."

Stressing the importance of four-way meeting on Syria, Cavusoglu said the removal of terrorism in Syria is important for its security and stability.

"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," he added.

Humanitarian policy

Since 2016, Türkiye has launched four successful anti-terror operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable peaceful settlement by locals: Euphrates Shield [2016], Olive Branch [2018], Peace Spring [2019], and Spring Shield [2020].

Thanks to these operations, the pace of the return of Syrian refugees from Türkiye to their country has accelerated.

Cavusoglu, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Syria's Faisal Mekdad met on May 10 in Moscow to exchange views on normalising relations between Türkiye and Syria, and to discuss counter-terrorism, political process and humanitarian matters, including the voluntary, safe and dignified return of Syrians.

More than 3.7 million Syrians currently reside in Türkiye, making it the world's top refugee-hosting country.

Following the start of a civil war in Syria in 2011, Türkiye adopted a humanitarian policy for Syrians fleeing persecution and brutality.

Syria has been embroiled in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Bashar al Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN estimates.