Increased Syrian-Turkish marriages fuel social change: Experts

Marriages between Syrian and Turkish citizens increased to almost 3,600 last year, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜ?K) has revealed, while experts have agreed the resultant social changes were unavoidable, with some stressing the marriages could help socialization between the two cultures and others warning against damages to the institution of civil marriage. 

Official data from TÜ?K highlighted the increasing number of marriages between Syrian and Turkish nationals, as nearly 3,600 couples were wed during 2015. Simultaneously, researchers have begun to work and contemplate on the long-term effects of these interactions on Turkish society. 

Ibrahim Soysüren, a sociologist from Neuchatel University in Switzerland, said these marriages could be beneficial in terms of increasing the socialization between the two cultures, which now have to exist side-by-side as Turkey currently hosts almost 3 million Syrian refugees who have fled the ongoing war in their home country.

However, Soysüren also warned these marriages could lead to continuing migration, depending on the response from Turkish institutions and society. 

"For now, we can perceive this situation as [cultural] richness but, later on, its larger sociological results will depend on how the [Justice and Development Party - AKP] government and Turkish society handle this situation," Soysüren told Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency. 

The researcher also expressed his expectation to see a further rise in the number of Syrian-Turkish families and their children, "even if everything goes back to normal in Syria."

Another academic from ?zmir's Dokuz Eylül University, Prof. Özkan Y?ld?z, was a supporter of Soysüren's argument that multicultural marriages...