No fewer than 81,000 Syrians have returned home from Turkey under the new authorities in Damascus, Turkish Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya said on Wednesday.
According to current data, there are more than 2,870,000 Syrian refugees living in Turkey.
“From Dec. 9 to today, 81,576 Syrians have voluntarily returned to the SAR (Syrian Arab Republic),’’ Yerlikaya said, speaking in Ankara.
No less than 821,000 Syrians have voluntarily returned home from Turkey since 2017, the minister added.
In early January Yerlikaya said that an average of 11,000 Syrians a month were leaving Turkey before the change of authorities in Damascus.
The pace has now increased significantly, the minister said.
A total of six checkpoints on the Turkish side have been opened for the return of Syrians to their homeland.
Most refugees have returned to Syria from the Turkish border provinces of Gaziantep and Hatay, as well as from Istanbul.
In general, according to official data, there were about half a million Syrians in Istanbul province. (RIA/NAN)
