Turkish officials are making plans to aid the refugee crisis by creating a military-administered camp in Syria on the Turkey-Syria border. A high Turkish official says Turkey is trying to gain humanitarian support and will then propose a plan to create a buffer zone.
Around 35,000 Syrian refugees reside in Bab al-Salama, a refugee camp on the border, and tens of thousands more are expected to arrive. Through organizations like the Foundation for Humans Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH) and Turkish Red Crescent, the Turkish government distributed rations and 2,000 tents to different refugee locations.
A high Turkish official says the country is “technically ready” to accommodate more refugees. Even so, Turkey wants to build a “field buffer zone” near the fence to meet the latest arrivals. The IHH is coordinating the process of transferring aid to Syrian refugees on Syrian soil.
Burak Karacaoglu, a manager at the IHH aid center, told Haaretz, “We set up tents 2-3 kilometers beyond the border [on the Syrian side] for 15,000 refugees…We bring them bread, medicines and equipment every day. There are thousands more people there sleeping under the trees. We’ll put up tents for them too.”
The place where Turkey plans to install this military-administered camp is exposed to artillery fire and air strikes are audible. In a press conference Monday, Waji Muhammad Jumma, the minister of Health of the Syrian Opposition interim government, stressed the importance of instating a no-fly zone to protect the Syrian people.
Currently, it is not known how the Turkish military will protect these refugees. IHH has armed guards that secure the camp, check the identity of refugees, and make sure nobody comes in armed. Meetings between Ankara and defense ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are planned for Feb. 10 and 11.
Turkey and Germany have agreed to consider NATO cooperation on border security to prevent the irregular arrival of refugees.
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