Turkey Aims to End a Backlash by Sending Syrian Refugees Home

With the country’s economy—and his popularity—faltering, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes steps to start returning some of the millions who fled their war-torn nation

By David Gauthier-Villars in Istanbul and Nazih Osseiran in Beirut, WSJ

Turkey is taking steps to stem a backlash against the nearly four million displaced people from war-ravaged Syria, whose presence and a badly faltering economy have stoked anger at President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Police in Istanbul, where the candidate from the president’s ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, was trounced in July’s mayoral election, are conducting more identity checks in a bid to lower the number of Syrian refugees living in the country’s economic hub who were registered elsewhere.

“We aim to accelerate the return of Syrian refugees to their homes,” Mr. Erdogan told Turkish ambassadors in Ankara on Tuesday.

U.S. officials have urged Ankara not to conduct any unilateral military operations in an area where hundreds of American soldiers are stationed, but Mr. Erdogan has said Turkey’s patience was wearing thin.

Other countries hosting refugees also are reviewing their support for refugees as the war winds down in Syria.

In Lebanon, for example, the government in recent months has ordered demolition of homes refugees built illegally and ended a rule that allowed children to benefit from their parents’ registration status. In May, some 300 refugees were deported to Syria, Lebanon’s state media reported, out of a total of roughly 1.5 million there.

But nowhere is the policy shift sharper than in Turkey.

When the Syria war began in 2011, Mr. Erdogan offered housing, health care and education to families fleeing the conflict. At that time, Turkey’s strong economy absorbed the sudden inflow of cheap labor, especially in farming and construction.

In 2016, when most European Union countries closed their doors to Syrian refugees, he pledged that Turkey would help seal European borders and extend its open-door policy in exchange for financial support from the 28-nation bloc. Many Syrians settled in, learning Turkish, launching businesses and giving birth to 434,000 babies over the past eight years.

But with the Turkish economy now struggling as industrial output contracts in many sectors and an annual 17% inflation rate in July, more Turks say the refugees have worn out their welcome, blaming them for problems including soaring unemployment and high house-rental prices. Empathy for the Syrian refugees fell to 40% in July from 72% in February 2016, according to a national survey conducted by Turkish polling agency Konda.

The refugee issue, long minimized by pro-government media, helps explain a drop in Mr. Erdogan’s popularity, pollsters said.

Murat Mantarci, who manages a real-estate agency in Istanbul’s Ikitelli district, where many Syrian refugees reside, and who describes himself as a die-hard AKP supporter, said he voted for the opposition candidate to convey his discontent with Mr. Erdogan’s refugee policy.

“Look, we don’t have Mr. Erdogan’s cellphone number,” the 43-year-old businessman said. “So we sent a message through the ballot boxes, and I think the president got it.”

The Turkish and U.S. governments on Wednesday said they had agreed to coordinate efforts on creating a safe corridor in northern Syria to allow refugees to return home, but didn’t say how Ankara and Washington would reconcile their diverging views on a Kurdish militia controlling the area. The U.S. regards it as an ally for its role in combating Islamic State, while Turkey considers it a terrorist organization.

Syrian government officials cited by Syria’s state news agency Sana said implementation of the corridor plan would be an aggression against the country’s sovereignty.

Turkish law-enforcement authorities are using a hotline to collect information from the population on the location of refugees illegally living in Istanbul. The government initially turned a blind eye when refugees didn’t stay in the city where they had been registered. Now, however, those who were granted residency permits elsewhere have until Aug. 20 to leave. Those who have no registration face detention and possible deportation.

A 27-year-old Syrian said police in Istanbul stopped him for a check in July. He said he didn’t have Turkish documents, but told the authorities that his wife and one of his three children were registered to live there. He said authorities let him go.

Speaking by phone from Syria, Wael Mahmoud Saeed, 25, said Turkish police had been less charitable with him. He said he had been living in Istanbul for six years without registration, sending money to his family in Aleppo, when police detained him for 10 days in July. He said he was asked to sign a voluntary return form and was transported to the Syrian border. “It was horrifying,” he said.

Turkish authorities say they haven’t forcibly deported refugees to Syria. They say about 340,000 Syrians have returned home voluntarily since 2016 and settled in two areas the Turkish army controls.

In Istanbul’s Ikitelli district, the Aug. 20 deadline has shattered the stability the 14 members of the al Mussa family had found in a small, sparsely furnished apartment. The father, who suffers from severe heart disease, his wife, their seven daughters and four grandchildren are preparing to return to Mersin, a Turkish city 100 miles from the Syrian border where they were registered six years ago. The elder daughters have lost their jobs at an Istanbul textile factory because their employers grew scared of running afoul of the labor administration. The younger ones are no longer allowed to attend school there.

The family’s only son will stay in Istanbul to continue working at a wet-wipe factory, where he earns $80 a week.

“I’m afraid to leave him behind,” said Ahmed al Mussa, the father. “But he’s our only bread earner.”