26 May 2023; MEMO: Turkiye has launched the construction of a mega-scale housing project to resettle Syrian refugees in northern Syria, Turkish media outlets reported.
The project includes nearly a quarter of a million housing units on the outskirts of the town of Ghandura in the Jarablus region on the border with Turkiye.
"Syrian refugees living in Turkey will settle in homes … within the framework of voluntary return that preserves their dignity," Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu said on Wednesday as he laid the foundation stone for the project, adding that "240,000 homes will be built in the area."
He said he hoped the project would be complete within three years.
Turkiye controls a wide border strip in northern Syria, which includes a number of major cities. Its forces are deployed at several observation points in the governorates of Aleppo and Idlib.
Qatar is the main financier of the project.
"So far, there have been 554,000 voluntary returns," Soylu said. "There is a serious demand for voluntary and dignified return to this safe area," he added.
