Syrians have been fleeing the war in their own country to Turkey for 5 years now. As early as 2014 – Carlotta remembers – there were numerous homeless Syrian children on the streets of Istanbul. In Europe, however, the war in the Middle East still seemed far away at the time. That changed a year later – since then, we in Europe and Germany have been looking for political solutions to the migration of refugees. 

With officially 3.6 million Syrian refugees in the country, Turkey is an important, if not the most important, partner. Most of them live in the east of the country and in the cities of Istanbul and Izmir. As part of the Turkish government’s current “Source of Peace”¹ operation, they are now to be relocated to a Syrian “protection zone”. What do Turks and Syrians in Turkey think about this operation? What are the narratives and perceptions of Syrian refugees in Turkish society? 

Carlotta and Robin discussed these questions over a cup of black tea in Antalya, where Robin has been living for five months.