Turkey expects influx of 1 mln Syrian refugees after Russian airstrikes

Turan Yılmaz - ANKARA

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In Ankara, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş has suggested that Russia’s military intervention in Syria, which has shifted balance of power in heavily populated regions, will eventually lead to a mass influx of up to 1 million Syrians into Turkey.

“The west of Syria is the place with the highest population; Damascus, Homs, Hama, Aleppo and Latakia. There is a balance there at the moment, a multilateral civil war. Each additional intervention there, particularly this intervention by Russia and its bombing of locations of moderate dissidents will give too much strength to the regime. In such a case, the regime will gradually increase its ongoing oppression and attacks,” Kurtulmuş said in remarks to Hürriyet on Oct. 5.

“In this case, God forbid, new changes of balance in these cities with crowded populations will lead to an influx of hundreds of thousands, perhaps an influx of over 1 million into Turkey,” he said.