Over 5,500 more Syrians return home from Turkey

By Cem Genco

HATAY, Turkey (AA) - Over 5,500 Syrians living in Turkey have returned voluntarily to their home country over the past two months as Turkey's anti-terror operations cleared their hometowns of terrorists.

A total of 5,767 Syrians living in several cities of Turkey, crossed Syria from the southern Cilvegozu border gate between January and February, according to an Anadolu Agency analysis of official data.

Turkey hosts 4.7 million foreigners from 192 nations.

Since 2016, Turkey’s Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations in northern Syria have liberated the region from the YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists, including Al-Bab, Afrin, and Azaz, making it possible for Syrians who fled the violence there to return home.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed or displaced in the conflict, mainly by regime airstrikes targeting opposition-held areas.

* Writing by Beyza Binnur Donmez