Marriages between Turks and Syrians on rise in Turkey’s southeast: Report

ANKARA

The number of marriages between Turkish and Syrian citizens has risen in the southeastern border province of Kilis, according to a report presented to the Parliament Speaker’s Office.

The report, prepared by the Protection of Family Integrity Research Commission, also said divorce cases between Turkish couples had recently increased in Kilis, which has welcomed a high number of Syrian refugees in recent years.

“It can be concluded that the number of foreign marriages has increased in Kilis along with the number of Syrians arriving,” read the report, daily Habertürk reported on May 20. 

It also stated that husbands have reportedly been threatening to marry Syrian women in disputes with their wives. 

“It was said that in domestic disagreement, some men have threatened to leave their wives by saying they will ‘get married to a Syrian.’ One woman who was left by her husband in order for him to marry a Syrian woman, said: ‘My husband’s morals were already like this. If she wasn’t a Syrian, my husband would have got married to someone else. Poor women coming here have no sin,’” the report read. 

It added that the same woman was now engaged in efforts for women coming from Syria, including vocational courses, shelter needs via a non-governmental organization.

Daily Hürriyet visited Kilis in February and reported on the same issue from the province. 

A woman named Filiz, from Kilis’ Atatürk neighborhood, told the daily that she was fed up with her husband saying “Go if you want, I can easily find a Syrian” during every dispute. She also said her brother – who is married with two children - had taken a 15-year-old Syrian girl as a second wife.

Husbands illegally marrying second or third wives from women among the Syrian community in Kilis is another major problem that many locals have complained about. 

Under the Turkish Civil Code men cannot marry more than one woman, but Islamic law allows men to have multiple marriages.

Another woman, from the Beşyüz Evler neighborhood of Kilis, said her neighbor’s husband, who is legally married, has also married two Syrian wives.