Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has announced that more than 500,000 Syrians who fled to Turkey during the rule of Bashar al-Assad have returned home since he was overthrown in December, Turkish Minute reported.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X on Monday that 509,387 Syrians had returned home since the “liberation of Syria,” in reference to the ousting of the Assad regime by a coalition of opposition forces led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
According to official figures, more than 1.24 million Syrians have returned voluntarily since 2016. Turkey hosts the world’s largest Syrian refugee population, once estimated at 3.5 million, though the government has increasingly promoted repatriation programs.
Yerlikaya said the returns are overseen by the Presidency of Migration Management and coordinated at centers such as the Voluntary Return Coordination Center in Sarıçam, Adana province. He described the process as “safe, dignified and orderly.”
Turkey has granted legal status to approximately 3.5 million Syrian nationals who fled the civil war that began in 2011. Initially welcomed under a temporary protection policy, many Syrians settled in Turkish cities, sparking debates about integration, economic strain and cultural differences.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan introduced a voluntary return project in 2023 when he said 1 million Syrian refugees would return home voluntarily. That statement came amid rising anti-migrant sentiment across the country, with opposition parties demanding the return of Syrians whom they blamed for some of the economic and social ills in the country.
Turkey’s government has described its refugee policy as both humanitarian and pragmatic, while opposition parties have urged faster repatriations amid growing public pressure over the presence of Syrians.
The issue of refugee returns remains sensitive, with rights groups cautioning that not all repatriations are genuinely voluntary and that conditions in Syria remain unsafe in many areas.
In June Filippo Grandi, head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), said 600,000 Syrians had returned home from neighboring countries.
Syria has seen outbreaks of violence in recent months, testing the new authorities’ ability to contain inter-religious strife after the fall of Assad.
