Syrian refugees in Turkey wait for fighting to end

An estimated 30,000 Syrians are staying close to the border so that they can quickly return home if peace comes.

Mardin, Turkey - Millions of Syrians have been displaced internally and externally by the war that has been going on for almost five years.

Almost 80 percent of Syrians are now living in poverty, with two million children out of school because of the conflict.

Next door in Turkey, over two million Syrian refugees live in poverty, with an estimated 30,000 living in temporary shelter around Mardin near the Syria-Turkey border.

They have crossed into Turkey to escape the war but are staying close enough so that, if peace comes, they can quickly return home.

Hamed Mujadami, from Aleppo, thinks there will be no problem forming a transitional government that represents all Syrians.

"Syrians are united people and there are no problems between us," he said.

"We've lived together for hundreds of years. When the revolution came, everyone joined it. The reason people stood up was the Assad family."

Anas Kasim, another refugee, said President Bashar al-Assad should be allowed to stay in power if it meant getting peace in the country.

"Let him stay if it brings peace," Kasim said.

"We just need to go back to our country, our schools and our homes. We're so tired of living in exile. We've had enough. God help us."

But Mohammed al-Sofi from Hasakah thinks Assad should go.

"If Assad is allowed to stay in the country he has destroyed, what will we be left with?" he said.

"Every family in Syria has been split up because of him. And now we are expected to let him and his ugly regime stay?"

All of them, however, want the fighting to end.

But they also said that until the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters are defeated, they will not go back to their homes.

Source :http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/syrian-refugees-wait-fighting-151219182034727.html