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Syria's Neighbors No Longer Welcome Syrian Refugees

(Israel Hayom) Prof. Eyal Zisser - As the war in Syria is nearing its end, the last rebel-held stronghold is in Idlib province in the country's north. Because a great many Syrians who oppose the Assad regime found refuge in Idlib, the final stage of the war may force hundreds of thousands of Syrians to seek refuge in Turkey. However, Turkey has already declared it will not allow them entry and now, Ankara is busy trying to get rid of the two million Syrians already in Turkey. Egypt, too, is seeing a groundswell of antipathy toward its quarter-million Syrian refugees. In Lebanon, the rising tide of criticism against the Syrian refugees has sparked tensions that have spilled into violence. And in Jordan, there are increasing calls to force the million and a half refugees in camps in the country's north back to Syria. The Syrian refugees, however, have no interest in returning to the regime from which they fled or were forced to flee. The Syrian regime views these refugees as potential enemies because they hail from those areas that spawned and waged the revolt. The writer is a lecturer in the Middle East History Department at Tel Aviv University.
2019-08-13 00:00:00
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