A year on, since first Syrians come to Turkey

HATAY – Anatolia News Agency

Syrian refugee children look on at a refugee camp named "Container City" in the province of Kilis April 13, 2012. REUTERS Photo

It has been a year since the first group of Syrian migrants came to Turkey fleeing the violence in their country.

A total of 252 Syrians, including women and children, were the first group of people who fled to Turkey by walking to the border in Syria’s north. They entered the Yayladağı district of Hatay waving rebel flags and chanting anti-regime slogans a year ago. Sheyk Tariq, one of those Syrians, said all their needs had been provided for in the tent camps in Hatay for a year. He said there has not been any luck in Syria since then, and that they were grateful to Turkey for hosting them.

Meanwhile, a Turkish citizen, Mahmut Akbaş, was injured on April 27 by a bullet coming from the Syrian side of the border in Turkey’s Şanlıurfa province. Şanlıurfa Governor Celalettin Güvenç visited Akbaş and said an investigation has started into this issue.