Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on Tuesday that a total of 35,114 Syrians have returned home over the past 21 days since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by an alliance of rebel groups on December 8, Turkish broadcaster NTV reported.
Yerlikaya said the majority of the Syrians who left Turkey returned to Aleppo.
The minister said Syrians who want to move back to their homeland will be allowed to leave and re-enter Turkey three times in the first half of 2025 to help them during resettlement, with one person from each family granted three entrances and exits.
Turkey is home to nearly 3 million refugees who fled Syria after the start of the civil war in 2011, with the fall of Assad raising hopes that many would return home.
Yerlikaya said he expects the number of Syrians returning to Syria to increase in the summer when schools will be closed.
According to figures provided by the minister, 805,0000 of the Syrians in Turkey — 30 percent of the 2.9 million in the country — are children who were born in Turkey but who have not been granted Turkish citizenship.
“Those born in Turkey do not have Turkish citizenship. They have temporary protection status. The moment they cross the border, their temporary protection ends,” said Yerlikaya.
Yerlikaya also announced last week that separate offices will be established in the Turkish embassy in Damascus and consulate in Aleppo so that the records of Syrians in Turkey can be used in Syria.
Turkey’s Damascus embassy reopened on December 14, six days after Assad was toppled by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced last week that Turkey would soon open a consulate general in Aleppo.
The embassy had closed on March 26, 2012, a year after Syria’s civil war began.
Two-stage plan
Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler announced last Friday that Turkey has drafted a two-stage plan involving the movement of Syrians back home. Güler said the return of Syrians staying in refugee camps around the northwestern Syrian town of Idlib, under the control of Turkey, to their hometowns in other parts of the country will be organized in the first stage, adding that the return of other Syrians living in Turkey will be arranged in the second stage.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Ministry of Trade issued a circular last week aiming to facilitate the return of Syrians to their country. The circular also facilitated the transport of foreign currency and jewelry for Syrians leaving Turkey.
According to data from the Interior Ministry, an average of 11,000 Syrian refugees returned home from Turkey per month in 2024.