Turkey intends to build residential units to accommodate the internally displaced persons(IDPs) in northeastern Syria near the border with Turkey, as part of a project to create the so-called “safe zone.”

At the time of his return from Ukraine on 4 February, the Turkish President, Recep Tayyib Erdogan, said in a statement to reporters that Turkey is progressing at a depth of 30 to 40 km into northern Syria.

Erdogan added in the statement reported by the İhlas news agency (İHA), a Turkish private news agency, that Turkey is working on the construction of residential units for housing the internally displaced Syrian people in that area.

In the first phase of the project, Turkey will build 25,000 housing units within an area of 25 to 30 square meters, with German financial support,  after Erdogan discussed the project with the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.

Erdogan pointed out that Turkey wants to resettle up Syrian people in the so-called “safe zone” through establishing housing units in north-eastern Syria with the help of Syrian workers.

Erdogan told earlier TRT, Turkey’s state-owned TV channel, that Turkey seeks to resettle 1 million people in the so-called “safe zone” in the area between the cities of Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayn in northern Syria.

In his statement to TRT, Erdogan confirmed the possibility of resettling 530,000 persons in the area between the cities of al-Malikiyah and Ras al-Ayn in al-Hasakah province and the relocating of additional 405,000 persons between the cities of Ras al-Ayn and Tel Abyad in al-Raqqa province.

T24, an online newspaper website, posted pictures of some housing units on the Syrian-Turkish border. İHH, a Turkish humanitarian relief foundation, has started the construction of these units in the village of Kafr Lusin in northern Syria on 30 January.

According to T24, the project has four thousand residential units. Each unit consists of one bedroom and a small separate room with an area of 24 square meters.

Salim Toson, the Syria media coordinator of the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, told T24 that the project of building concrete housing units will continue as planned in the safe zone in northern Syria, reaching to the areas of the Operation Euphrates Shield.

Toson added that there are no places to set up tents for the IDPs in many Syrian regions.

Toson pointed out that 200 Syrian families will be offered housing units, and the project will continue after the completion of its first phase that aims to build 10,000 concrete housing units.

What are the concrete housing units?

İHH initiated a donation campaign to build concrete housing units as an alternative to the tents on the Syrian-Turkish border.

 The housing unit consists of a building constructed of “bricks,” with an area of 24 meters. It has one bedroom and a separate small room with a plastic cover that protects against rain. The cost of each unit is about 2200 Turkish lira (TL-  around 370 USD- 1 USD= 5.9 Tl), according to the official website of the foundation.

The project titled “Emergency Life House” aims to shelter IDPs of Idlib as the Syrian regime continues in its military aggression in the region.

 The media coordinator of the İHH, Mustafa Özbek, confirmed to Enab Baladi that the goal of the project is to provide better living conditions to the displaced people in fire retardant and waterproof shelters at the site of the camps.

Özbek added that “the İHH foundation has completed the establishment of a large number of units, one thousand of which are almost ready to be handed over to the IDPs of Idlib in Harbanoush village near the Syrian-Turkish border.”

Salim Toson is preparing two other infrastructure sites, to start building a similar housing unit shortly, according to Özbek.

The İHH foundation aims to build 10,000 concrete similar housing units as a minimum, and if there is sufficient support, it plans to build between 20 to 30 thousand units, according to Özbek.

 The İHH” humanitarian relief foundation can be contacted through its Arabic Facebook page. (click here)