Baku, Azerbaijan, May 1
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
An incident occurred between Syrian refugees and the military in the southern Turkish province of Mardin, resulting in four injured soldiers, the Turkish newspaper Milliyet said May 1.
The incident occurred after 66 people were poisoned in a refugee camp in Mardin. After the mass poisoning, riots broke out in the camp and the Turkish military had to intervene.
Some 17 Syrians were detained as a result of the incident.
The continuing conflict in Syria has driven more than 1.6 million Syrian to seek refugee status in neighboring Turkey.
Sheltering Syrian refugees has already cost Ankara $5.5 billion, according to Turkey's Office for the Prevention and Elimination of Consequences of Emergency (AFAD) of Turkey.
In the province of Sanliurfa alone, there are some 500,000 Syrian refugees among the population of 1.8 million.
The majority of the 300,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey are housed in camps. Istanbul alone has taken in 40,000 refugees from Syria with the rest are scattered among the other Turkish provinces.
In addition, in countries such as Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, too, there are considerable numbers of Syrian refugees. The total population of Syria before the conflict was 20 million people.
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