Politics
Syrian refugees in Türkiye head home ahead of Muslim holiday
Cilvegözü, a border crossing between Türkiye and Syria, teems with crowds nowadays. Syrian refugees who spent years in Türkiye either permanently return to their homeland or travel for a brief visit home on the occasion of the upcoming Muslim holiday Qurban Bayram or Eid al-Adha. Ahead of the holiday, which will start later this week, border officials are busy processing the returnees at the crossing in the southern Turkish province of Hatay.
In past years, Türkiye has occasionally allowed refugees to travel home for religious holidays, but this time, Syrians look forward to ending their refugee status after their country was liberated from the oppressive Assad regime when the civil war ended last December. Türkiye streamlined border crossing procedures after the fall of the regime, as hundreds of people flocked to the borders to return home. Temporary protection status still remains for thousands of others, as Syria is still not fully inhabitable for many, due to damage left by years of conflict. Authorities allowed a few round trips until July for refugees to check whether they can resume their lives in their land of birth.
Mahmoud Karzu was 8 years old when he took shelter in Türkiye, and at the age of 18, he had his eyes set on returning home for good. “It is a double joy for us. We will mark Eid; we will reunite with our country. I have been here with my family for the past 10 years. But I am also losing friends I made in Türkiye in those years. So, I am worried too. I love the Turkish nation. May Allah bless them. We may be of two separate states, but we are one nation now,” he told Ihlas News Agency (IHA) on Sunday. “Türkiye has been my new motherland. We are treated here well, but all my relatives are in Syria,” he added.
Fahmi Alamo also returns after 10 years in Türkiye. “Returning to my country is a feeling I cannot describe. I am going to Homs, where I was born. My family is there. Türkiye is a beautiful country and I have many friends here. People have been very hospitable. I will never forget Türkiye,” he said.
Last week, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that the number of Syrian refugees who left for home after the fall of the Assad regime has reached 250,064.
Overall, more than 1.1 million Syrians have departed since 2016.
Türkiye has been home to millions from its southern neighbor as the Assad regime escalated attacks on the opposition and the country’s civil war dragged on. At one point, Türkiye was home to the largest Syrian refugee community in the world.
Syria’s civil war killed over half a million people and left the country in desperate need of reconstruction. Western sanctions imposed on Assad were recently lifted, paving the way for a potential recovery.
Foreign diplomatic missions in Türkiye expressed condolences following the tragic deaths of 10 people, five forest workers and five of the Search and Rescue Association (AKUT) team, who lost their lives while battling a devastating wildfire in Eskişehir’s rural Seyitgazi district.
The fire, fueled by record-breaking temperatures, strong winds and critically low humidity, turned deadly when a sudden wind shift engulfed a response team deep within the forest.
In a wave of solidarity shared via their social media accounts, embassies and diplomats across Ankara paid tribute to the victims and conveyed support to Türkiye during this difficult time.
The French Embassy said: “We extend our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives fighting wildfires in the Eskişehir region. In this difficult time marked by numerous fires, France stands with Türkiye.”
Hungarian Ambassador Viktor Matis wrote: “I’m deeply saddened by the loss of heroic individuals who gave their lives to save others and protect forests. Condolences to the bereaved.”
German Ambassador Sibylle Katharina Sorg also expressed sorrow, saying: “We received heartbreaking news from Eskişehir. I extend my deepest condolences to the families of the 10 who died while responding to the fires and wish a swift recovery to the 14 injured. Climate change poses an existential threat to us all.”
Pakistan’s Embassy emphasized its grief, saying: “We are deeply saddened by the precious lives lost. We offer condolences to grieving families and pray for the full and speedy recovery of the injured.”
The Dutch Embassy stated: “Our hearts go out to the families of the forest and rescue workers and volunteers who lost their lives. We stand with those battling the wildfires and with the people of Türkiye.”
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara and the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul similarly expressed deep sadness at the loss of life and destruction caused by wildfires in Eskişehir and other parts of the country.
“Our thoughts are with the grieving families, those affected, and the courageous first responders. The United States stands with Türkiye in this difficult time,” their statement read.
The EU delegation also issued a statement mourning the losses, praising the dedication and sacrifice of those who died while protecting people and nature.
“Their efforts reflect the highest values of solidarity and selflessness,” the delegation wrote. “As a long-standing partner of both the General Directorate of Forestry and AKUT, we share in the sorrow of this tragic loss and express our full solidarity with the families, colleagues, and loved ones of the victims. Our thoughts are with them during this difficult time. May the deceased rest in peace.”
The outpouring of condolences underscored the global support for Türkiye’s emergency responders and communities as the country continues to battle the ongoing threat of forest fires.
We aim to bring together the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and the United States to achieve peace in the ongoing war, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday, indicating he would talk this week with Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
“I might speak to Putin and Trump this week to see if we can hold a leaders’ meeting on the war in Istanbul,” the president told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul.
“The last meeting was at Çırağan. My foreign minister conducted the meeting on my behalf. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian delegation met with us in Ankara before moving on to Çırağan. I received them and had meetings with them. Of course, I also talked with Mr. Vladimir Putin during these meetings, and we sought his support,” he elaborated.
Erdoğan’s words came after Türkiye brought together Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul on Wednesday.
The rival sides met earlier in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2 amid U.S. pressure to agree on a cease-fire to end the three-year-old conflict. Despite the urging of U.S. President Donald Trump, no major breakthrough was made.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Friday that a summit between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could only happen as a final step to seal a peace deal.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that it was unlikely that such a meeting could occur by the end of August, as Ukraine has proposed.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators have so far only agreed to hold prisoner exchanges. And Russia has since launched intense air attacks on Ukraine and seized more front line territory.
Russia has demanded that Ukraine give up four regions, on top of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014. The Kremlin also insists that Ukraine should abandon any plans to join the NATO military alliance.
Ukraine has rejected the demands and expressed doubt that Russia wants a cease-fire.
Ankara is keen on boosting its international profile as a key mediator and utilizes Istanbul’s symbolic location to promote diplomacy between the parties involved in conflicts and disagreements on a global level.
NATO member Türkiye is one of the most active countries working to ensure a permanent cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia. Its delicately balanced act of assuming a role as a mediator by keeping communication channels with both warring sides open provides a glimmer of hope in diplomatic efforts to find a solution and achieve peace in the Ukraine crisis. With its unique position of maintaining friendly relations with both Russia and Ukraine, Türkiye has garnered widespread praise for its efforts to end the war.
While Ankara has opposed international sanctions aimed at isolating Moscow, it has also closed its straits to prevent some Russian vessels from crossing through them.
Istanbul will host the first Balkan Peace Platform with the participation of the region’s countries on Saturday to increase cooperation and boost regional peace.
The meeting is expected to include the foreign ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia, while the deputy foreign minister of Albania will also participate.
The platform aims to enhance dialogue, mutual trust and cooperation among regional countries and to produce lasting solutions to regional issues.
Diplomatic sources said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is expected to emphasize the importance of acting with an approach based on the principle of regional ownership
He will conduct consultations on strengthening regional integration, maintaining stability and eliminating existing security risks. Moreover, the sources said Türkiye’s top diplomat would discuss concrete cooperation projects in the areas of connectivity, energy and communications, particularly transportation corridors.
The sources underlined that the platform is not an alternative to other initiatives but rather complementary to them.
Fidan is expected to express Türkiye’s prioritization of all constructive initiatives that will contribute to regional peace, dialogue and shared prosperity.
Fidan is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the meeting.
The Balkan Peace Platform has been developed within the framework of Türkiye’s innovative diplomacy understanding and is an initiative that aims to respond to the region’s needs.
Türkiye has become a remarkable actor in the Balkans as a natural result of economic growth and foreign policy versatility in the last 20 years.
Türkiye puts emphasis on peace, stability and good neighborhood solidarity in the Balkans. It offers solutions for the chronic problems of the region because it believes that struggling with expansionist nationalist tendencies and overcoming the problems created by micro nationalism is only possible with sovereign equality of states. In this context, Türkiye is attentive to minorities living within the borders of the Balkan states, not to be discriminated against and to protect the identities of those peoples.
Apart from its diplomatic missions, Türkiye also provides economic, technical and humanitarian aid to Balkan countries through semi-official institutions such as the Yunus Emre Institutes, the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay), the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
As part of Türkiye’s initiatives in the Balkans, Belgrade and Ankara initiated the trilateral consultation mechanism with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.
Furthermore, Türkiye regularly participates in structures such as the Southeast European Cooperation Process, the Regional Cooperation Council, and the Steering Committee of the Peace Implementation Council in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Türkiye also contributes to regional stability through the NATO KFOR and EUFOR Althea movements.
The KFOR started its duty in Kosovo on June 12, 1999, following a U.N. Security Council decision to ensure security and stability. The mission has over 4,500 international military personnel from 27 countries, including 21 NATO members and six non-NATO partner countries. Türkiye took command of NATO’s KFOR on Oct. 9, 2023, the first time it has done so.
Among 27 NATO member countries and partners, Türkiye has the second-largest contingent in the KFOR, contributing at least 780 of its approximately 4,500 soldiers. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and was recognized by many countries, including Türkiye. But Belgrade has never recognized Kosovo and claims it is still part of Serbia. Türkiye maintains good relations with both Kosovo and Serbia.
No sabotage, provocation or trap will veer us away from the goal of a terror-free Türkiye, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Wednesday.
“While breaking the wheels of corruption on one hand, we take steps to free Türkiye from the scourge of terrorism,” Erdoğan said during a graduation of the police academy in the capital Ankara.
“With our terror-free Türkiye process, we will, God willing, close an era filled with pain and tears and open wide the doors to a new era centered on brotherhood, peace, prosperity and development.”
The initiative was launched by government ally Devlet Bahçeli, head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who called on the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, to appeal to the PKK to lay down arms last year.
Soon, his call evolved into a new initiative that saw Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmakers visiting Öcalan in the island prison where he is incarcerated in the Marmara Sea. As a result and in a landmark development, the PKK in May announced its dissolution and the end of its four-decade terror campaign that cost tens of thousands of lives in Türkiye, as well as in Iraq and Syria. Most recently, in a ceremony across the border in Iraq this month, PKK members destroyed their weapons as part of the process.
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) spokesperson Ömer Çelik also spoke on the issue the same day following the party’s Central Executive Committee (MYK) meeting.
He said Erdoğan, during his speech at the MYK, conveyed that the party must give utmost importance to the process and that some circles attempt to sabotage the initiative through causing confusion on the PKK’s laying down of arms.
“The terror-free Türkiye process, which Ankara has implemented as a state policy, will be carried out with great sensitivity and meticulousness. The AK Party will demonstrate the necessary sensitivity to maintain high energy levels and achieve results. This is being demonstrated by the People’s Alliance,” he said.
Çelik said that while the initiative will lead Türkiye to get rid of terrorism, it will also be a source of inspiration for the region.
Parliamentary commission
Ankara is at the same time also working on legal steps, establishing a parliamentary commission to follow up on the process of the PKK dissolving itself. This committee will make recommendations to the Parliament speaker regarding both administrative and legal regulations.
Çelik said that the commission would be announced within days.
“Here, our speaker’s sensitivity is to carry out this in a comprehensive manner, where all elements, all dynamics, and all political representations of Türkiye are reflected,” he added.
He once again reiterated that all parties must contribute to the process resulting positively.
During his visit to southern Adana province on Thursday, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said: “We enter a period in which all kinds of terrorism have ended in the ‘Century of Türkiye’ and in which there is no violence, where everyone lives fraternally through strengthening our internal front.”
He added that the ministry would closely follow the works of the commission.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chair Özgür Özel also touched on the issue, saying: “The idea for this commission is ours. This commission must take the Kurdish issue in Türkiye as a whole within the scope of democratisation.”
Meanwhile, DEM Party Şırnak lawmaker Nevroz Uysal Aslan similarly said he expected the commission to begin works soon.
“From the very beginning, we have said that the establishment of this commission would create a legal basis for peace and democracy and strengthen social participation,” he said.
Aslan added that civil society should also be part of the commission’s works.
Türkiye has strongly condemned the Israeli parliament’s recent resolution urging the government to annex the occupied West Bank, denouncing the move as a flagrant violation of international law and a dangerous provocation.
In a written statement issued Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry declared the resolution “null and void under international law and without any validity,” stressing that the West Bank is Palestinian territory that has remained under Israeli occupation since 1967.
The ministry criticized the move as part of broader efforts by Israel to undermine peace and destabilize the region.
“Any Israeli attempt at annexation is illegitimate and provocative,” the statement read, warning that Israel’s “violent policies and unlawful actions” are not only worsening the humanitarian crisis but also threatening international order and regional security.
Türkiye calls on the international community to take immediate and concrete steps to halt Israel’s actions, the statement said.
“Binding and deterrent measures must be taken without delay against genocidal Israel’s aggression; the legal and moral obligations of the international system must be effectively fulfilled,” the statement urged.
Earlier this week, the Israeli parliament voted in favor of a resolution calling on the government to annex the West Bank – territory internationally recognized as occupied Palestinian land. Of the 120 Knesset members, 71 supported the resolution, 13 opposed it, and the rest abstained.
The resolution claims the West Bank as “the historical, cultural and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people and an inseparable part of the Land of Israel.”
Israel’s presence in the West Bank, which it occupied in 1967, is considered an occupation under international law. Resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council reject Israel’s annexation of these territories, which it acquired through war.
Escalating occupation
Israel’s settlement expansion and land seizure in the West Bank have intensified significantly. According to Peace Now, an Israeli NGO, land appropriations in the first quarter of 2025 have already exceeded the total for all of 2024.
Currently, over 451,000 Israeli settlers reside in the West Bank and another 230,000 in East Jerusalem, settlements considered illegal under international law. These settlers live under Israeli civil law, while approximately 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank remain under Israeli military rule.
Palestinians face harsh daily conditions, including road closures, frequent military raids and violent attacks from settlers. Human rights groups have repeatedly warned that these conditions amount to systematic discrimination and collective punishment.
Israel is already facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its military actions in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
Türkiye has been vocal in calling out what it describes as Israel’s genocidal policies and the failure of the international community to enforce legal standards.
With the annexation vote, critics warn that Israel is moving toward de jure annexation of Palestinian land, solidifying control in ways that would further derail prospects for a two-state solution.
Türkiye’s statement concluded with a call for immediate international accountability, warning that inaction could lead to deeper instability and irreparable damage to the peace process in the region.
The Greek Cypriot administration on Thursday said it did not accept an aid offer by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) for the ongoing forest fires on the island.
TRNC Prime Minister Ünal Üstel, during his visit to Ozanköy village in Girne, said Greek Cyprus rejected the offer made through the U.N.
Criticising their stance, Üstel said: “We offered help, but the Greek Cypriots didn’t accept it. They accept burning, but they don’t accept help.”
A fast-moving wildfire near the southern Cypriot city of Limassol has killed at least two people and forced widespread evacuations, local media said on Thursday.
The blaze broke out on Wednesday in a mountainous village about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Limassol and quickly spread, fanned by strong winds.
“We are all saddened by the fact that many settlements have had to be evacuated due to the forest fire that broke out today in the villages of Limassol and remains uncontrolled,” TRNC President Ersin Tatar said.
Highlighting the urgency of the disaster and the shared risk to human life and the environment, Tatar stressed that the offer of support is rooted in humanitarian responsibility.
The fire forced the evacuation of 14 villages along a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) stretch of mountainous terrain.
Media reports showed gutted homes smoldering as flames swept through the outskirts of some villages. In the village of Lofou, at least 20 homes were destroyed as fires threatened a group of stranded evacuees whose police buses had to turn back as the fire front shifted to block their exit.
The island has been split between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities since 1974, when a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence in Cyprus. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.
Greek Cypriots control the southern part of the island and are recognized by the international community as a state, despite protests from Turkish Cypriots and Türkiye. The TRNC is located in the northern part of the island and is recognized only by Türkiye.
It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the U.K.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a U.N. plan to end the longstanding dispute
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