What is the purpose of Turkey's early announcement of opening the date of the "Eid visit" to Syria?

ARK News.. The management of the "Bab Al-Salama" crossing surprised the Syrians living in Turkey a few days ago, by announcing the early announcement of the opening of the registration for those wishing to "Eid visit" during the current year, as it published a statement saying that the registration will start from the date of 23.02.2020 until 31.12.2020 Upon informing the Turkish side of it.

This Eid visit is the longest in terms of the duration of visits that have been made available to Syrians who are holding documents of Kimlik from the Turkish authorities during the past years.

The decision comes surprisingly for the Syrians, and at a time it carries a lot of questions about the real goals of taking it that way, and this particular time, usually, registration dates for Eid visits open about a month before “Eid al-Fitr” or “Eid al-Adha”, and the holder is granted the right to spend the Eid period in Syria and return to Turkey within specified dates.

The "Eid visit" is one of the topics that Turkish opposition officials constantly criticize, considering that whoever goes to Syria can stay there instead of returning to Turkey.

The announcement raised a lot of suspicion among the Syrian refugee community in Turkey. It is worth mentioning that there are many refugees who are not considering registering for “Eid visits”, fearing that they will not be able to return, while Turkish officials are talking about the burdens and costs incurred by Ankara due to the Syrian refugees, and the constant talk about the country's inability to absorb another wave of displacement.

Among the common reasons that deprive the Syrians of returning to Turkey are their delay in the date of return or the loss of their documents at the Turkish crossing upon return, or entry by voluntary return or other reasons.

According to testimonies by Syrians, many of them were prevented from returning to Turkey due to problems of this nature that occurred during the “Eid visit”, but no party has worked to document or conduct a survey of those cases whose owners lost the right to return to Turkey.

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