By Bosphorus News Türkiye Desk
The updated figures came during a live television appearance covering border security and irregular migration enforcement, extending a count Bosphorus News has tracked since June.
Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said Wednesday that 1.5 million Syrians have returned to their country since 2016, updating the 1.425 million figure Bosphorus News reported in June. Speaking in a live appearance on NTV, Çiftçi said 723,000 of those returns have taken place since the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024, up from the 710,000 he cited in a separate television appearance in July. He described the returns as voluntary, safe and dignified, Ankara's standard formulation for the process, and said Türkiye does not force anyone back into danger.
The minister said Türkiye currently hosts 3,623,000 foreigners with legal stay rights, of whom 2,235,000 are Syrians under temporary protection. Bosphorus News reported in June that the figure stood at 2,264,983 as of a June 18 statistical table from the Presidency of Migration Management. The agency's own weekly tables show the population continuing to decline since then, from 2,235,988 on July 30 to 2,231,839 on August 6, the most recent update available.
Çiftçi also said Türkiye has completed 1,389 kilometers of border security wall, up from the 1,329 kilometers reported in June, with electro-optic towers, thermal cameras and patrol vehicles monitoring the border around the clock. He said operations would continue against organizers of irregular migration.
The total return figure has risen by roughly 75,000 over the seven weeks since Bosphorus News last reported it, a pace consistent with the roughly 1,000 daily returns Çiftçi described in a July appearance on 24 TV. Neither the minister's office nor the Presidency of Migration Management has published a more precise total than the rounded 1.5 million Çiftçi cited Wednesday.
Sources: NTV, TPresidency of Migration Management, Bosphorus News review and reporting.