After the destruction of large portions of their adopted country by last week's earthquake, Syrian refugees living in Turkey on Friday tried to return to their war-torn homeland.
Following the earthquake, which claimed more than 41,000 lives and caused millions of people to be displaced in both nations, hundreds of people lined up at the Cilvegözü border crossing in southeast Turkey.
48-year-old Abbas Albakour claimed that his house in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, close to the epicentre of the earthquake, had been totally demolished.
"Problems have existed in Syria for 12 years. But right now the worst calamity is in Turkey," he added as he stood in line outside with two of his kids and a pile of bags headed for the Idlib region of Syria.Everything fell "in a minute," he said.
After fleeing a civil war that has destroyed large portions of the country over the past 12 years, killed almost 500,000 people, and caused millions more to be displaced, approximately 4 million Syrians have made their way to Turkey.
The United Nations estimates that 1.74 million migrants reside in the 11 Turkish provinces affected by the disaster on February 6.
Turkey this week allowed Syrians under its protection who hold ID cards from one of the quake-hit provinces to leave for between three and six months.
The rule change, which is designed to reunite families on both sides of the border hit by the disaster, means Syrians can now leave without first obtaining a travel permit, according to Omar Kadkoy, a Turkey-based Syria expert.
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