Life’s new reality in Turkey: Refugees

Mardin: “When I took office here two years ago,” said the coordinator governor in charge of refugees, Veysel Dalmaz, “There were about 50,000 Syrian refugees in the camps.” As of fall of 2012, Syrians who have entered Turkey, but are living outside the camps are estimated to be in the band of 15,000 to 20,000.” 

Today, we are in June 2014. Nearly two years later, the “estimated” total number of refugees is pronounced as around 1,200,000 by Governor Dalmaz. Out of this number, 220,000 are living in a total of 22 camps run by the state. The remaining nearly one million Syrian refugees are living is several of Turkey’s provinces.

Even for the richest countries of the world, it is a serious situation that 1.2 million new people were added to the population in a short period of time like two years.

We visited a refugee camp in Mardin’s Midyat district in a trip organized by the European Commission, also joined by the coordinator governor.

Just as in other camps, no food is served in this camp anymore. Instead of serving meals, each refugee receives a shopping card on which 85 Turkish Liras are uploaded each month for each refugee. With this card, refugees can shop from the market inside the camp and cook their own food. The U.N.’s World Food Program contributes 60 liras of this amount and the remaining 25 liras are provided by AFAD, the Prime Ministry’s Disaster and Emergency Directorate.

Everything looks organized and in order in the camp. EU Ambassador Stefano Manservisi thanked and congratulated Dalmaz for the “first-class camp.”

Despite these genuine praises, in the final analysis, this is a refugee camp. The camp inhabitants have to spend most...