Turkey will open its Syrian border crossings once again today for thousands of Syrian refugees looking forward to spending the upcoming Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice).
The Governorate of Kilis, the southern province where Öncüpınar, one of the crossings between Turkey and war-torn Syria is located, announced that Syrians would be allowed to return until Aug. 18 and will be allowed back into Turkey starting from Sept. 3.
More than 50,000 Syrian refugees had returned to their homeland for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr last month and the majority of them returned to Turkey when the border crossings were closed yesterday.
Turkey keeps its border crossings with Syria, where a war has been raging since 2011, closed due to security concerns, but occasionally opens them for humanitarian purposes.
Syrian refugees need to be registered with authorities for the return to their hometowns and most prefer going to relatively safer towns in northern Syria where Turkey has helped the Syrian opposition to liberate towns from terrorist groups.
