Too early for mass Aleppo returns: Turkish minister

ANKARA

Some 42 percent of Syrians residing in Türkiye are from Aleppo and seek to immediately return to their country in the wake of recent developments in the region, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has said.

Türkiye expects many of the 3 million Syrian refugees currently on its soil to speed up their returns if opposition forces hold the city of Aleppo, which last week they praised from Damascus' control, Yerlikaya told a group of journalists in Ankara.

But the minister cautioned the time may not yet be ripe for large-scale population movements to Aleppo.

"We know those from Aleppo love Aleppo very much. We meet them and they are extremely enthusiastic.”

"But to those who say they wish to go back now we say, 'wait, it's not safe at the moment,'" Yerlikaya said.

"Everyone hopes to return to his homeland as soon as they see or detect peace and security," he added, noting that 42 percent of Syrians, amounting to 1.25 million people, now living in Türkiye hail from the Aleppo region.

"There will be strong interest" in a return, a burning issue in Türkiye, he predicted after rebels last week took over Aleppo, Syria's second city, which in more than a decade of war had never fallen out of government hands.

Some 880,000 Syrians have taken refuge in the Turkish provinces of Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa and Hatay, which border Syria. Another 500,000 are registered in Istanbul, according to official statistics.