Some 150 Syrians including women and children left Turkey on Monday to return to their homeland which was recently liberated from terrorists by the Turkish military's anti-terrorism cross-border operations in Syria.
The Syrians, who had fled the civil war in their country and sought refuge in Turkey, got the necessary documents to return home after applying through a voluntary return program. The migration management office in the Öncüpınar district, located in southeastern Turkey's Kilis province near the Syrian border, provided the Syrians with buses for their journey home through the border crossing in the district.
Turkey carried out two cross-border operations, Operation Euphrates Shield launched in August 2016 and Operation Olive Branch in January 2018, to drive terrorist groups including the PKK's Syrian affiliate People's Protection Units (YPG) and Daesh out of its borders.
Turkish officials have also been signaling a third operation to liberate areas east of the Euphrates River in Syria.
Syrian families expressed their happiness of returning to their motherland, adding that they were thankful for the warm reception they got in Turkey. Turkey has been receiving a significant amount of refugees since the beginning of the civil war, and the country currently hosts more than 3.5 million Syrians. At the end of last year, Turkey's Interior Ministry said that nearly 300,000 Syrians had returned to their homes after successful Turkish counterterror operations in the region.
