...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
since the collapse of Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
’s regime in December.
"From December 8, 2024, to today, 550,000 of our Syrian brothers and sisters have made voluntary, safe, dignified and orderly returns to their country," Ali Yerlikaya said on X.
A coalition of rebel factions led by the Syrian Interim President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, ousted Assad in an operation that concluded on December 8.
"Since 2016, the number of Syrians who have made voluntary, safe, dignified and orderly returns to their homeland has reached 1 million 290 thousand," added the Ottoman Turkish minister.
Ankara is a staunch supporter of the new authorities in Damascus, led by the former jihadist rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...(HTS).
Turkey has hosted the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world, sheltering several million Syrians for years. Most fled the civil war that erupted in 2011, a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions.
Ankara has been accused of resettling Syrian Arab families in northern Syria where its repeated military offensives have forced thousands of Kurdish families from their homes since 2016.