Following the outrage over Syrians celebrating the new year in Istanbul, the Turkish interior minister gave an extensive interview to journalist Kübra Par. While trying to ease the xenophobic sentiments by denying myths about Syrians, such as “they are being accepted to universities without examination”, “they don’t have to wait in lines in the hospitals” or “they are given free public housing”, Minister Soylu also promotes a cultural and moral perspective on Syrians that highlights a historicized imagination of brotherhood of religion and being in arms. Minister Soylu also provides some significant data on Syrians. He says that 294,000 have returned to Syria, 65,000 have been granted work permits, 76,443 have been granted citizenship, and 645,000 children have been integrated into public education system. The full interview can be read in Turkish via HaberTurk. Below is a link to a brief report by the News Tribe, based on the same interview.
Via The News Tribe
As many as 76,000 Syrian refugees residing in Turkey were given citizenship. In an interview with Haberturk channel, Soylu said that 62 per cent of the Syrian refugees in Turkey had come from the northern governorates of Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa and Hasaka.