Turkey's Cavusoglu warns of influx of Syria refugees

Turkish minister of foreign affairs, Mevlut Cavusoglu, has announced Turkey`s inclination to help the four million displaced Syrian people within the boundaries of Idlib, Turkish TV channel, NTV, reported on Tuesday from the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland.

“In Idlib, the regime’s aggression continues. Assad has to stop atrocities against Syrian civilians in Idlib. Dozens of civilians have lost their lives in Syria’s Idlib and tens of thousands of others have been displaced since 12 January, as the regime forces and its allies continue to violate the ceasefire. President Erdogan told Putin about the bloody attacks, including the numbers. He told Putin sincerely and openly that the attacks must stop in Idlib. We made the same call to the international community,” Cavusoglu was cited as stating, by NTV.

Speaking on the topic of Turkey`s open-door policy for Syrian refugees, he also disclosed: “Our preference is to help displaced people, not within the boundaries of Turkey, but Idlib. We are working to build camps where people can stay. There are about four million people waiting to come to Turkey. If the aggression continues in Idlib, millions of people will flee towards Turkey. We cannot overcome this. The international community should help Turkey with the new refugee influx.”

Since the conflict in Syria began in March 2011, an estimated 5.6 million Syrians have fled the country, the majority of them to Turkey. According to government statistics, around 3.5 million Syrian refugees have been registered in Turkey, as of 10 October 2019.

Syria: 27,000 more civilians flee Idlib de-escalation zone