SITUATION REPORT V2. Location: Edirne, Pazarkule Border, Turkey Report date 5th March 2020 STL Contact details Volkan Pirinççi, Operations Coordinator,
[email protected] Pınar Emine Gökgün, Program Development and Quality Co- ordinator,
[email protected] Mahmut Can İsal, Legal Sector Manager,
[email protected] Photo Credit: Kerem Uzel, Edirne, 2020 1. Overview 34 Turkish soldiers were killed and more than 30 were wounded in Syria's Idlib prov- ince on Thursday night in an aerial attack by Russian-backed Syrian regime forces. The same night, a security summit chaired by the Turkish president held in the presidential complex in An- kara and Turkey's communica- tions director said “The migrants were now also Europe and the world's problem”. He said “Tur- key had "no choice" but to relax border controls because it had not received enough support in hosting about 3.7 million Syrian refugees.” Turkish police, coastguard and border guards were ordered to stand down. Thousands of refugees in Turkey began arriving at the country’s borders with Greece and Bulgaria on Friday after Ankara suddenly indicated it would no longer block their passage to Europe. According to Turkish Interior Minister, latest number of people crossed border is 135.844. According to local media reports and field observations, refugees continue to come to Edirne province to cross the border, as of March 4. Estimated number of the refugees at the border crossing area is above 15,000. Majority of the refu- gees are Afghans, Iranians and Pakistanis followed by Syrians. Refugees from African countries have also been observed.