At least 1 million Syrian refugees are set to return to their homeland to permanent residences that will be built with funds from Qatar in northern Syria, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced Wednesday.
A total of 240,000 homes will be constructed in nine separate locations across the Idlib and Afrin regions over the course of the next three years, Soylu told reporters at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Voluntary, Safe, Honorable Return Project in Jarablus, a Syrian city belonging to Aleppo just south of the Turkish border.
Türkiye has been home to some 3.7 million Syrians who fled persecution and brutality in their country when the civil war broke out in 2011 after the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. A decade of fighting has left at least half a million Syrians dead and more than 14 million in need of humanitarian aid.
In the country’s north, Ankara helped Assad’s opposition sustain moderate ground against regime forces while starting in 2016, Turkish counterterrorism operations, Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch and Spring Shield liberated swathes of territory from terrorist groups like the PKK and its U.S.-backed Syrian branch, the YPG, and enabled the safe resettlement of civilians.
Turkish officials said the process of an organized return not just to the border area but across Syria has already been launched in discussions with Damascus. Russia and Iran have also been party to the Syrian crisis by militarily backing Assad but have been working to help ease the thaw between Ankara and the Assad regime in recent years.
Some 554,000 Syrians have so far returned from Türkiye to the region now improved with new schools, hospitals, organized industrial sites and better infrastructure.
More than 6 million Syrians now live in nearly 107,000 briquette homes erected in Afrin, and Türkiye is working hard hand in hand to normalize daily life in the region, Soylu said.
“Türkiye’s priority in Syria has always been eliminating terrorist groups and making the region safe,” he stressed.
The housing project has been in the works since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held the first talks a year ago and it will be entirely financed by Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD), Soylu explained.
The fund and Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) inked a protocol in April 2023 for the first phase of the project, which will deliver 5,000 units of the 28,681 homes within this year, according to the Turkish minister.
As opposed to the current 25-square-meter (270-square-foot) briquette homes, some 60% of the homes in Ras al-Ain, Tal Abyad, Jarablus and al-Bab will range in size from 60, 80 and 100 square meters and amount to a permanent city.
The priority of return to these homes will be given to Syrian refugees in Türkiye, Soylu explained. “Thanks to our efforts in the region for the past year, there is a serious demand for going back,” he noted.
Touting the move as “the most honorable project the human history will talk about,” Soylu said, “It will be an exemplary step for the whole world, showing how humanitarian aid transforms into development in a region.”
He informed that 12 offices in 12 provinces have been working in coordination with nongovernmental organizations and opinion leaders of Syrians for their safe, voluntary and honorable return as part of the initiative.
In addition to residences, the project will include agricultural plots, commercial facilities, production and industrial areas, and all social equipment from education to health care, Soylu explained.
“You will see that this will mark such a beginning, it will destroy all seeds of hatred around the world,” he noted. “The region will not be a place for chaos or war but of hope and the future. It will turn into one of the key hubs of attraction. A new life will spring forth here.”
Türkiye could not turn its back on the problems and woes of Syrians who have been suffering for 12 years, Soylu we went on to say. Underlining that the cooperation between Türkiye and Qatar will stop the bleeding in Syria, he also thanked Qatar and Sheikh Tamim for their generosity and contribution to the project.
“Qatar has proven its conscience and fellowship to the whole world with this move. A new era is beginning around the globe. The downtrodden and mistreated will not be alone,” Soylu said.
For his part, Khalifa Jassim al-Kuwari, the head of the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD), expressed his pleasure in partaking in the groundbreaking ceremony and stressed the importance of the project for the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.
“Qatar Fund for Development is very happy to be a part of this project,” al-Kuwari said. “We’re here to offer an honorable life to our Syrian brothers and sisters.”
While most Syrians in Türkiye are not eligible to vote, anti-migrant sentiment is running high in the country amid economic turmoil, including high inflation, and the issue of the repatriation of migrants has turned into a main campaign issue in the run-up to the landmark presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14. The issue has been particularly fueled by ultra-nationalist opposition figures bargaining with presidential challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for “send back” deals ahead of the runoff vote between him and Erdoğan this Sunday.
