Turkey: Up to 600,000 More Syrian Refugees May Flood Our Borders

The Turkish government expresses concern that "in the worst-case scenario," up to 600,000 Syrian refugees, displaced by the fighting between government forces and rebels around Aleppo, may flood towards its borders. Turkey has currently kept its borders closed to the refugees who arrived in recent days. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş stated to reporters on February 8 that "the worst possible scenario that may occur in the near future in the region is an influx of 600,000 refugees to Turkey's borders." Kurtulmuş mentioned that "the result of the current situation (the battles in Aleppo) is that we have monitored 200,000 more displaced persons. Of this number, 65,000 have reached the borders, and 135,000 have been displaced within the country." In recent days, attacks by Bashar al-Assad's forces and allied militias, supported by Russian airstrikes, have intensified around Aleppo, leading to advances by these forces. The escalation of conflicts has resulted in a new wave of refugees who currently remain behind Turkey's borders. According to Agence France-Presse, a significant number of the newly displaced are women and children. International figures and officials have called for their acceptance into camps within Turkey in recent days. Ankara had previously made promises regarding this matter. Nevertheless, the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister stated on February 7 that the country is "overwhelmed with Syrian refugees." Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu emphasized that "as always, we will help our Syrian brothers" and added, "We will accept them when necessary (into Turkish territory)." Davutoğlu's deputy stated that Ankara's current policy is to keep refugees behind the borders and provide assistance to them at that point. Currently, nearly 2.7 million Syrian refugees have been accepted in Turkey. With the increase in conflicts and tensions around Aleppo, the Geneva peace talks have also been postponed. Western officials say the Geneva talks are "the best and probably only chance" to end the crisis and civil war in Syria, a war that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties and millions of displaced persons in its fifth year, and the United Nations has recently accused the warring parties of committing "war crimes."