3,500 Syrians to cross in to Turkey during holidays

Ceylanpinar Local Administrator Musa Uslan said that all preparations for the 48-hour visitations made across the border by Syrians and Turks had been completed. He said around 3,000 Turks had crossed over to Syria during the last Feast of the Sacrifice.

As a result of the Ankara treaty signed between Syria’s colonial masters France and Turkey in 1921, families were divided by the border. Families tried to celebrate religious holidays through the barbed-wire for 79 years, after which Sanliurfa and Syrian Haseki governors signed a protocol in 1999 to allow family members to cross the border.

The first time this protocol was applied was on Jan. 9, 2000.