Millions of Syrians living in Turkey will have a chance to become citizens of the country that gave them shelter, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday.
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Erdogan said refugees will be given a chance to acquire citizenship through offices being set up by the ministry. “We have been doing this for quite a while, and we opened Incirlik Air Base for those who want to join the active fight against Daesh”, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview on state broadcaster TRT Haber on Sunday, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
He added that Turkey had other initiatives in this regard, but did not elaborate on the matter.
“The world insists on its ignorant attitude towards the Syrian Crisis”, Erdoğan said, and continued by saying that they tried to resolve the issue by closing the doors on Syrian refugees when they flocked to their borders.
Only a select group have been granted work permits and residency.
A senior Turkish official said the president’s remarks represented a “statement of intent” and that the government was still undertaking preliminary work. “It is not clear if they will be included in this scheme or not”, he said.
“Turkey is also your homeland”.
“The opposition might see this as Erdogan importing voters to have a stronger grip on power”. Many refugees have been given basic health care, temporary housing and in some cases Turkish ID cards.
Life is a struggle for most Syrians in Turkey, who mainly live off odd jobs that are often insufficient to feed and house a family.
Syria has been going through a brutal civil war since 201 and it doesn’t show signs of ending anytime soon.
More than 250,000 people have been killed and an additional 10 million have been displaced since violence broke out in Syria in 2011.
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Nearly half of Syria’s population of 23million have been displaced since the 2011 Syrian uprising – with more than four million Syrians fleeing to neighbouring countries Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, as well as Turkey.
