Some 1,500 Turkmen flee Syrian war for Turkey
Turkmen fighters backed by Turkey have launched their own ground operation in northern Syria to retake territory controlled by ISIS
Around 1,500 members of Syria’s Turkmen minority have fled to the Turkish border to escape renewed fighting in the northwest of the country, a Turkish official said Sunday.
Turkey has expressed concern in recent days over Russian air raids in the area, fearing they are aimed at hitting Syrian opposition fighters and bolstering the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile, Turkmen fighters backed by Turkey have launched their own ground operation in northern Syria to retake territory controlled by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“As of today, around 1,500 of our Turkmen brothers and sisters have come to our border region,” the governor of Turkey’s Hatay region on the Syrian border Ercan Topaca was quoted as saying by Turkish news agencies.
“Of course we are ready to meet their every need, especially as winter conditions are starting,” he said, adding that 575 tents had already been sent as well as blankets, food and medical supplies.
Turkey says it has taken in a total of 2.2 million refugees from Syria’s four-year civil war and still maintains an “open door policy” while warning its capacity to take more is limited.
Topaca said the authorities are preparing for a possible new wave of migration from the affected area, with 15 mainly Turkmen villages in the conflict zone with a total population of up to 35,000, including ethnic Arabs.
Ankara has expressed fury over the bombing campaign by Russian and Syrian regime jets in the region, summoning Moscow’s ambassador last week to protest.
The Turkmen are a Turkic-speaking ethnic minority who live alongside Arab and Kurdish populations and have traditionally had uneasy relations with the Syrian regimes of Bashar al-Assad and his late father Hafez.
They have close ties to Turkey, which sees the minority as allies in its push to oust Assad from power.
Also Read
-
America’s latest failure on Syria? The refugee crisis
Should the West open its arms to Syrians, it counteracts ISIS’s own propaganda that the West seeks to destroy Muslim lives Middle East -
U.S. religious leaders make forceful appeal to admit refugees
U.S. religious leaders make forceful appeals to admit refugees despite fears after Paris attacks World News -
Punishing Syrian refugees will only help ISIS
The sheer terror that hit Paris on the 13th has everything to do with a monstrous ideology that has found a safe haven in the troubled pockets of the ... Middle East -
Serbia, Macedonia limit entry of refugees by nationality: UNHCR
Serbian authorities allow into the country only refugees from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq when they have documents to prove it World News -
U.S. White House hopeful compares Syrian refugees to rabid dogs
U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson compared refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war and ISIS militants to rabid dogs Variety -
French refugees camp.. Equality only in suffering
Special Mission -
9/11 filmmaker Michael Moore opens home to Syrian refugees
Moore, known for his leftist political activism, slammed Governor Rick Snyder for his decision on the refugee Variety -
Will Germany and the UK honor their commitment to migrants?
Questions have been raised by many over whether Europe should continue to accept refugees traveling from countries such as Syria Features -
Obama meets Malaysia refugees as bitter Syria debate rages
In Kuala Lumpur, Obama knelt down to chat to children about their art work Middle East -
Syrian refugees victimized at home, demonized in America
There is an element of pornographic debasement of an entire people and their religion in the crass competition among Republican candidates and ... Middle East
