ANKARA: Amid speculation about a fresh wave of refugees into Turkey through its 150 km border with Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, Ankara is making its national stance clear: The maintenance of national security is a key priority.
On Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that Turkey is taking necessary measures on this specific part of the border, across which lies an area of Syria where radicals connected to a former Al-Qaeda offshoot have gained control. Turkey also recently restricted the passage of non-humanitarian goods at the Bab Al-Hawa border crossing into Idlib.
Turkey currently holds some 3 million Syrian refugees, making Ankara the world’s largest host of refugees. The refugee camps are also providing aid along the border. The Turkish Red Crescent has already helped the refugees by distributing clothing and toiletries in Idlib, and in June began a housing project there that is expected to cover about 1,000 properties.
Turkey earlier this year completed the construction of a 700 km wall along the Syria border, controlled by a sensor system, cameras and drones.
Dr. Bora Bayraktar of the International Relations Department at Istanbul Kultur University said considering the US-led international coalition’s impending bombing campaign in the region and the possibility that the regime forces may counteract this move, civilians in Idlib may be obliged to move toward the Turkish border.
“However, Turkey doesn’t seem to welcome such a massive refugee influx for now. Ankara wants to manage the crisis on the other side of the border through diplomatic channels,” Bayraktar told Arab News.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday told reporters that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization is holding negotiations with Russia and Iran about the swift resolution of the Idlib issue.
According to Bayraktar, resolving this issue with local partners diplomatically is the best solution for now.
“Turkey is already hosting a great number of refugees and (upholding its) financial, social and humanitarian responsibilities. On the other hand, it is building walls along its border with Syria, along with increased border security measures,” Bayraktar said.
“There is a risky jihadist presence in Idlib and it will be very difficult to differentiate (between) civilians and jihadists during a possible passage through Turkish gates. Even PYD militia (members of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party) may infiltrate into the country,” he added.
However, Metin Corabatir, former spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Turkey and president of the Research Center on Asylum and Migration in Ankara, thinks that if there is a refugee influx toward Turkey due to a possible bombing campaign, it will be against international norms to reject them.
“Since the beginning of the conflict, Turkey adopted an open-door policy, and since 2014 it has a necessary legislative framework to regulate such refugee waves with the aim of managing the refugee issue in a systematic way,” Corabatir told Arab News.
Corabatir noted that if refugees from Idlib come across the border in large numbers, Turkey will be obliged to establish registration facilities, before directing people to refugee camps in Turkey. “If armed groups are also present among these refugee groups, they should be treated separately, be disarmed and be subject to necessary international norms if they are war criminals.”
Ayselin Yildiz, an expert on immigration at Izmir’s Yasar University, noted however that the 22 refugee camps in Turkey’s 10 provinces are already full. “Turkey was planning to extend its hosting capacity in case of a mass flow from Aleppo or Idlib last year, so there were some preparations, however, they might be limited,” Yildiz told Arab News.
“In case of such a huge flow, Turkey would certainly need urgent and concrete cooperation, assistance of international society and organizations.”
Yildiz thinks that Turkey would probably not reject people on the border, not just because of its international obligations but also due to its humanitarian approach. “We do not know whether these people will prefer to remain in Turkey or trigger another flow toward Europe,” she added.
Turkey tightens border security ahead of possible new wave of Syrian refugees
Turkey tightens border security ahead of possible new wave of Syrian refugees
Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills
DAMASCUS: Syria’s new authorities torched a large stockpile of drugs on Wednesday, two security officials told AFP, including one million pills of captagon, whose industrial-scale production flourished under ousted president Bashar Assad.
Captagon is a banned amphetamine-like stimulant that became Syria’s largest export during the country’s more than 13-year civil war, effectively turning it into a narco state under Assad.
“We found a large quantity of captagon, around one million pills,” said a balaclava-wearing member of the security forces, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Osama, and whose khaki uniform bore a “public security” patch.
An AFP journalist saw forces pour fuel over and set fire to a cache of cannabis, the painkiller tramadol, and around 50 bags of pink and yellow captagon pills in a security compound formerly belonging to Assad’s forces in the capital’s Kafr Sousa district.
Captagon has flooded the black market across the region in recent years, with oil-rich Saudi Arabia a major destination.
“The security forces of the new government discovered a drug warehouse as they were inspecting the security quarter,” said another member of the security forces, who identified himself as Hamza.
Authorities destroyed the stocks of alcohol, cannabis, captagon and hashish in order to “protect Syrian society” and “cut off smuggling routes used by Assad family businesses,” he added.
Syria’s new Islamist rulers have yet to spell out their policy on alcohol, which has long been widely available in the country.
Since an Islamist-led rebel alliance toppled Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive, Syria’s new authorities have said massive quantities of captagon have been found in former government sites around the country, including security branches.
AFP journalists in Syria have seen fighters from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) set fire to what they said were stashes of captagon found at facilities once operated by Assad’s forces.
Security force member Hamza confirmed Wednesday that “this is not the first initiative of its kind — the security services, in a number of locations, have found other warehouses... and drug manufacturing sites and destroyed them in the appropriate manner.”
Maher Assad, a military commander and the brother of Bashar Assad, is widely accused of being the power behind the lucrative captagon trade.
Experts believe Syria’s former leader used the threat of drug-fueled unrest to put pressure on Arab governments.
A Saudi delegation met Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, a source close to the government told AFP, to discuss the “Syria situation and captagon.”
Jordan in recent years has also cracked down on the smuggling of weapons and drugs including captagon along its 375-kilometer (230-mile) border with Syria.
Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall
AMMAN: About 18,000 Syrians have crossed into their country from Jordan since the government of Bashar Assad was toppled earlier this month, Jordanian authorities said on Thursday.
Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya told state TV channel Al-Mamlaka that “around 18,000 Syrians have returned to their country between the fall of the regime of Bashar Assad on December 8, 2024 until Thursday.”
He said the returnees included 2,300 refugees registered with the United Nations.
Amman says it has hosted about 1.3 million Syrians who fled their country since civil war broke out in 2011, with 650,000 formally registered with the United Nations.
Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
- Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war
- Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders
DUBAI: Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel – a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.
Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. But on Dec. 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, Islamist militants captured the capital Damascus.
Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.
Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi delegation met with Syria’s new rulers in Damascus on Thursday, an Iraqi government spokesman said, the latest diplomatic outreach more than two weeks after the fall of Bashar Assad’s rule.
The delegation, led by Iraqi intelligence chief Hamid Al-Shatri, “met with the new Syrian administration,” government spokesman Bassem Al-Awadi told state media, adding that the parties discussed “the developments in the Syrian arena, and security and stability needs on the two countries’ shared border.”
