Syrian refugees fear for their future as Turkey continues the rapprochement with Damascus

As Erdogan and Assad have taken their normalization process to a next level following the trilateral meeting in Moscow, the issue of Syrian refugees inside Turkey has become an increasingly discussed topic.

As a matter of fact, the rapprochement talks fall within a period of attempts made by Erdogan to pursue an incremental repatriation policy of Syrian refugees.

In May, he publicly touted about allegedly 500,000 Syrian refugees having returned to the Turkish-established so-called „safe zones“ in Northern Syria since 2016 and further added that new housing projects are currently planned, in order to ensure the safe „voluntary“ return of another 1 million refugees.

Now, approximately 3.5 million Syrians are officially registered in Turkey, with the status of „temporary protection“, whereby Turkish oppositional parties estimate the overall number of refugees to be mich higher than indicated in the current statistics.

The issue of refugees has evolved into a key topic as parliamentary elections will be due in June 2023 with Erdogan‘s government fearing for re-election as the country currently suffers from an economic crisis for which the Syrian refugees are scapegoated. This development has clearly fueled xenophobic and racist resentments leading to approximately 60 percent of the Turkish population to be in davor of bilateral talks between Erdogan and Assad.

However, it is still uncertain whether a full normalization between Syria and Turkey will be achieved in the near future and which implications it wi bear for the Syrian refugees currently residing in Turkey and fearing forced repatriation.