Displaced Iraqi Turkmen refugees begin to return home
In Tel Afar, Turkmen had a population of around 200,000 which reportedly fell to just 20,000 after Daesh took control.
Displaced Iraqi women and children sit on the ground at a collection point west of Mosul on the outskirts of Tal Afar, Iraq, August 26, 2017.
Displaced Turkmen from Iraq have started to return after Iraqi forces have retaken most of Daesh's strongholds in the country.
Tel Afar which is some 40 kilometres west of Mosul was one of the last Daesh strongholds to fall in August this year.
In Tel Afar, Turkmen had a population of around 200,000 which reportedly fell to just 20,000 after Daesh took control.
"The Turkish Red Crescent has been working in the region since 2011 when the war started. About year one ago, Tal Afar Turkmen were obliged to disperse across the country because of war and intense chaos." says Hakan Sari who heads the Turkish Red Crescent’s border assistance.
"About 7 thousand of them came to the Azez region. We examined their situation there. We provided them food and other items. Now, some of them want to return to their homes as the clashes there decrease."
Nearly 1,200 out of 7,000 Iraqis who fled turmoil in Iraq to take shelter in safe areas in Syria have returned to their country through Turkey, according to Misbah Qaysi, an official at Iraq’s Migration Ministry.
TRT World's Sara Firth reports on the Turkish-Syrian border.
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