Ohen a series of earthquakes killed thousands along the Turkish-Syrian border in February, many of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees who settled in Turkey after the start of the civil war are returned to Syria.
The Turkish government initially granted Syrian refugees permission to leave Turkey’s quake-affected provinces for up to two months; as a result, hundreds of people lined up for hours at border crossings to try to find family members left behind in Syria.
Most Syrian refugees are registered in Turkey under a temporary protection regulation, which gives them access to basic education and health care, but also requires that they not leave the provinces in which they are registered. Major cities like Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir had already stopped allowing such recordings at the start of the refugee crisis. The majority of Syrians today live in the southeastern regions of Turkey, closer to their homeland.
Syrian actor Mohammad Hamza, 21, in Gaziantep, Turkey, days before leaving the city and moving to Canada with his family in April. The actor fled war-torn Aleppo and moved to Gaziantep in 2013, where he worked for a few years in a factory before starting acting in a local theater and later in major film productions. Shortly after earthquakes hit their adopted hometown, the family was granted refugee status in Canada.
Carola Cappelari
Learn more: Photos show miraculous survival alongside devastation after Middle East earthquakes
For a brief moment, though reigniting the sorrows and pain of displacement, the earthquakes in Turkey provided a rare opportunity for Syrians living in the affected area to move freely, reconnect with relatives scattered across other provinces and visit what Turkey has to offer – from great cities to its most iconic landmarks, for the first time in their lives.
Italian photographer Carola Cappellari documents the lives of Syrian refugees along Turkey’s southeastern borders. Through her work, she strives to counter the narrative of Syrians simply as hopeless victims of war.
“I wanted to focus on the positive aspects of forced migration that showed the resilience of these communities,” says Cappellari.
A neighbor interacts with Duah Gawi’s paintings, inspired by real life scenarios seen in the days following the earthquake inside the informal tent settlement where Gawi lived after their home in Islahiye, Gaziantep, in april. Despite the freedom of movement granted by the Turkish government to Syrian refugees after the earthquake, Gawi’s family has no relatives living outside the affected area and has not been able to benefit from it.
Carola Cappelari
According to a 2017 document listing the rights of refugees in Turkey, returning to Syria is permitted but will count as “voluntary return” and could be “considered grounds for termination of temporary protection.”
This is why many have preferred to use their freedom to travel to visit other parts of the country that have welcomed them for years.
Learn more: The war through Syrian eyes
A whole generation of Syrians who grew up in Turkey have never seen anything outside their assigned province. Through his photography, Cappellari has documented the amazement and curiosity of young Syrians discovering new places for the first time after many years as they savor their freedom.
Syrian student Khadijah*, 20, finds solace in her parent’s house in Istanbul where she moved after earthquakes hit her hometown in March. It was the first time the student had had the opportunity to leave southeastern Turkey since crossing the Syrian border a decade earlier. (His name has been changed.)
Carola Cappelari
A view of the house in Istanbul where Khadijah* moved days after earthquakes in February caused the closure of her dormitory in Hatay. After spending two nights outside, the student was finally able to catch a bus and leave the quake-affected area.
Carola Cappelari
Mehdi* keeps track of where he went after evacuating Gaziantep a few days after the earthquake in March. Post-earthquake evacuation, for Mehdi and his brother Samir*, meant leaving Gaziantep and flying for the first time in their lives. (Their names have been changed.)
Carola Cappelari
For Syrians in Turkey, the earthquake created an opportunity to move freely that was quickly followed by a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment ahead of Turkey’s presidential elections in May. With the re-election of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, there have been more deals between Turkey and the EU to keep Syrians at bay, prompting many to leave the country and cross Europe by boat through perilous sea voyages.
The short 60-day window allowed many to find a brief moment of solace amid a lifetime of restrictions.
“This project aims to remind us that freedom of movement should not be taken for granted, that for many people traveling is a privilege and that many risk their lives to try to obtain equal movement rights”, said said Cappellari.
Friends and relatives accompany Mohammad Hamza and his family at the Gaziantep bus station on the day they left Gaziantep in May and headed for Toronto, Canada, where they were granted refugee status.
Carola Cappelari
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