The PKK and Daesh terrorist groups unite against Turkey and even exploit migrants for their aims, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said Thursday.

Speaking to Ankara bureau chiefs in the capital, Soylu underlined that even though terrorist groups continue to engage in human trafficking and oil trade, Turkey has stepped up security at its borders and has not allowed terrorist elements or ammunition to cross.

It has been reported several times that the PKK's Syrian wing, the YPG, and Daesh cooperate, with the former freeing members of Daesh from prisons, endangering the lives of the local people.

"Our capacities are strong both within our borders and across," Soylu said.

Moreover, the minister underlined that some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) of Europe and other countries are being used as a shield to conduct espionage while some members of these NGOs also engage with the PKK in Syria frequently.

Saying that Turkey will not allow these aid activities to be exploited, Soylu emphasized that the necessary authorities have been warned.

Those fleeing Syria’s areas controlled by the YPG, first go to Atmeh, then to Idlib and then try to come to Turkey, he elaborated.

"The safe zone has started to serve the function of a filter. Therefore the number of Syrians stopped from illegally entering Turkey through its southern border has steadily dropped to a third in the years between 2017 and 2021," Soylu said, indicating that the pressure of migration has decreased.

Meanwhile, 415,000 Syrians entered Turkey in 2017, 284,000 in 2018, 439,000 in 2020 and 117,000 in 2021. On the other side, 620,000 Syrians were prevented from entering Turkey and 306,000 have been deported.

He also spoke on the return of Syrians back to their homes from Turkey. Soylu also elaborated that Turkey is closely following and analyzing the situation of Syrians living in Turkey and their future ambitions. According to the minister, 28% said they would return if the war ended, 13.7% said they would head back even if the regime did not change, 12% would go if there is a safe zone, 4.1% wanted to return even with an ongoing war, 37% were indecisive, and 3.1% were not considering returning to Syria.

Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Turkey has backed moderate opposition groups against the Assad regime and opened its doors to those who had to flee the country to save their lives. Turkey hosts more Syrian migrants than any other country in the world. The country also leads humanitarian aid efforts for Syrians in Turkey and opposition-controlled areas of northern Syria.

Within this scope, Turkey is also building briquette houses for Syrians in the northwestern Idlib province, the last opposition bastion. Soylu said that 53,000 briquette houses of 100,000 have been completed. "These people will have a comfortable life."

The lives of Syrian people dealing with many difficulties in rural Idlib's tent camps have become much harder due to the recent winter conditions. With the humanitarian catastrophe in the region reaching new heights, people have been trying to survive by taking shelter under trees or shaky tents built on mud and puddles. Many Turkish NGOs and state agencies, including the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) and the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), continue to provide vital aid and conduct relief efforts in the region.

Turkey has made large investments in its social cohesion policies to enable Syrians to smoothly integrate into Turkish society.

Ankara so far has spent around $40 billion (TL 274 billion) on the Syrians in Turkey, while the European Union has provided only around 3 billion euros ($3.34 billion) of the promised 6 billion euros – a gap Turkey has long demanded be closed.

The minister also added that the number of voluntary returns to safe zones has increased to 480,000.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s counterterrorism operations across the border in northern Syria since 2016 have also allowed hundreds of thousands of Syrians in Turkey to resettle in their homeland.

After launching three consecutive operations in northern Syria, Turkey rolled up its sleeves to reconstruct hospitals, schools, mosques and roads destroyed by the YPG. In order to ameliorate the region's social infrastructure, people were given food and clothing by several NGOs, while roads and buildings were rebuilt.

"We are trying to prevent further migration including from Afghanistan, Syria," Soylu said, indicating that previously Turkey was granting temporary protection to those coming from Damascus along with Syrians fleeing war zones, but this regulation will not be effective anymore. These people will instead be referred to camps.

Saying that over a million people from Damascus are trying to migrate to Turkey and other countries, Soylu pointed to the great economic problems in the Syrian capital.

Across Syria, the human cost of the war has been huge. More than 350,000 people have been killed and over half the population uprooted, many of them from former rebel enclaves that were bombed into submission by Damascus and its allies.

But while the front lines have been largely frozen for years, an economic crisis is exacting an increasingly heavy toll across the fractured nation. The United Nations says the number of people in need of humanitarian support is greater than at any point since the war began.

Already hit by extensive damage to infrastructure and industries during the war, the once productive Syrian economy has nose-dived further since 2019 when contagion from neighboring Lebanon's financial crisis led the Syrian pound to collapse.

However, the number of those wanting to enter Turkey from Damascus has increased, the minister said, highlighting that their justification was not fleeing civil war but rather economic issues.

"Since 2011, Turkey is one of the countries most affected by the crises from all corners of the world from Bangladesh to Syria due to security risks. The reason behind this is not these countries but arms and smuggling activities that affect them."

On the migration crisis, Soylu also criticized Western countries for not engaging in substantial efforts to curb the crisis and ameliorate the situation in source countries of migration. He reminded that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a leader who understood the issue of migration but there has been a void in the EU ever since her term ended.

"You cannot manage migration if you do not support humanitarian issues," he said.

He said Western countries from time to time provoke the Turkish opposition with xenophobic and anti-migrant sentiments, while the U.S. is seeing the issue of migration as a "Hollywood cast."

Lavrion camp harboring PKK

Soylu further spoke on the terrorist activities and crossings in and out of Greece and especially the Lavrion camp.

"We have notified Greek authorities regarding the number and names of PKK terrorists and their activities," he said, explaining that the Lavrion camp serves as a base for terrorists and a point from where they cross over to northern Iraq. "Without this camp, there would have been less participation in the PKK."

Greece has long been accused of being a favorite hideout for terrorists, from the DHKP-C to the PKK. Those fleeing Turkey have taken shelter in refugee camps in Lavrion near Athens under the guise of asylum-seekers, especially in the 1980s. Despite the closure of Lavrion in 2013 amid pressure from Turkey, Greece continues to be the primary destination for DHKP-C terrorists.

Athens has also rejected Ankara’s extradition requests for terrorists from groups advocating armed insurgency against the state and those involved in armed attacks against Turkish security forces and political parties, in addition to other targets.