Who will pay $53 billion for Turkey’s safe zone project?

Turkey wants to build some 400,000 housing units in northeastern Syria where Operation Peace Spring is taking place in order to resettle some 2 million Syrian refugees, half of whom currently live in Turkey and the other half already lives there. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his self-styled resettlement project during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) gathering of world leaders on Sept. 25. He said Turkey was planning to resettle some 1 million refugees following the completion of the first phase of the military offensive against the Syrian Kurdish Protection Units (YPG) operating under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces. 

The YPG, which Ankara believes is a threat to its national security, is an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, which Turkey, along with many Western powers, considers a terrorist organization. 

Erdogan said that in the second phase of the operation a safe zone with a depth of 30 kilometer (18 miles) and a length of 480 kilometer (300 miles) will be completed with the capacity to host an additional million refugees.