Since 2016, more than half a million Syrians, who had fled to Turkey because of the conflict in their country, have broken into Syria, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
“Since the start of our cross-border operations in Syria in 2016, around 526,000 volunteers have returned to the safe zones we have created,” Erdogan said before the Turkish parliament.
Erdogan has said in recent months that he is preparing to return a million Syrian refugees, on a voluntary basis.
He also said that Ankara aims to encourage Syrians to return “to safe areas” on the border between Turkey and Syria, adding that houses and local infrastructure will be built for the returnees.
Officially, 3.7 million Syrian refugees live in Turkey.
Just less than nine months before the presidential elections, the presence of Syrian refugees in Turkey has become a political issue, especially at a time when official Ankara is facing an economic and monetary crisis.