The "dark future" facing young Syrians in Turkey

Turkey has become the world's largest host country for refugees. According to the Turkish Refugee Association, of the nearly 4 million displaced people in Ottoman territory, 3.6 million are refugees of Syrian origin who left their country after the outbreak of the civil war in 2011. However, despite the demographic importance of this displaced population, the Turkish government has not yet approved any plan of measures to guarantee all their basic needs, such as healthcare, education and economic stability.

Specifically, one of the groups that have raised the most concerns among the Ottoman authorities is the group of young Syrians. It is estimated that of the total number of refugees in the country, more than 2.6 million are Syrian men and women under the age of 30, and at least one million of these people have not yet reached the age of 10. This means that nearly one million Syrian refugees have never known their home country before the outbreak of armed conflict due to anti-government protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

A report published in 2019 by the German political foundation Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung estimated that around 500 Syrian children are born every day on Turkish territory without the authorities in either Ankara or Damascus guaranteeing them a national identity card in either territory.

Against this backdrop, Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has expressed concern about the increasingly permanent settlement of the Syrian population in Turkey. And while the authorities have already begun a campaign to convince the Ottoman public that the refugees will return to their countries of origin as soon as possible, international observers have already stated that these fears are unjustified.

However, the precarious situation of young people in the country is a widespread issue affecting both the displaced population and Turkish nationals. "The reality is that Turkey cannot guarantee a good future for its youth, let alone for young refugees," said Istanbul-based journalist Alexandra de Cramer for Al-Arab News. Currently, official figures for the third quarter of 2021 indicate that the youth unemployment rate in the territory stands at 22% - more than 11 million people between the ages of 15 and 34 - motivating young Turks to leave their home country en masse.

Thus, while Ankara has claimed to welcome migrants and displaced persons arriving in Turkey, the government has not yet developed a unified action plan to address their basic needs and ensure respect for their rights. Health and education issues are the main focus of the problem. According to the Education Reform Initiative, only half of Syrian refugee children attend school regularly, which is due - according to de Cramer - "firstly, to the fact that Turkey's central education system does not allow individual schools to adapt education to the needs of Syrian students and, secondly, there are not enough qualified teachers to teach a Turkish and Arabic curriculum".

The economic crisis plaguing the country - exacerbated by the depreciation of the Turkish lira - has also led to the emergence of a strong anti-Syrian movement. Many political parties have already increased their hostility towards refugees, openly calling for their return to their countries of origin.

There have already been several episodes in which Turkish citizens have assaulted and even killed displaced Syrians. One such example was made public by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which denounced the death of three young refugees after they set fire to the room where they were sleeping. Similarly, according to a study by the Children's Platform for the Protection of Children's Rights, at least half of the Turkish parents interviewed are against their children having friends of Syrian origin.

While refugee movement to Europe via Turkey has been a constant since 2011, the arrival of these displaced persons intensified from 2016 with the signing of the migration agreement between Ankara and the European Union. Through this treaty, Turkey undertook to grant asylum to all migrants and refugees trying to cross the Aegean Sea and illegally enter Europe through Greece. This included Syrians fleeing war, in exchange for a larger financial contribution from the EU. For its part, Brussels agreed to lift visa requirements for Turkish visitors to Europe, in addition to speeding up the negotiation process for Ankara's EU membership.

Initially, financial aid to Ottomanistan amounted to 6 billion euros, which was intended to provide economic support for Turkey's management of the migratory wave. However, in June 2021, the EU and Ankara renewed the agreement for a further 3.5 billion euros. The bulk of this budget is expected to be allocated to educational projects such as the integration of Syrian minors into the Turkish education system or the financing of the teaching structure, as reported by the Europa Press news agency.

However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that Turkey has spent more than 40 billion dollars (around 35 billion euros) on providing basic services for the refugee population, and has asked the EU to transfer the funds directly to the Ankara government. The EU's position is likely to be to reject this demand, as Turkey's growing authoritarianism and declining respect for human rights in the country are issues of concern to European authorities. Not to mention Turkey's military involvement in the Syrian conflict.