Syrian refugees find support, hope in Turkey's peaceful Kilis
A vocational training center is helping Syrian refugees build new lives in the peaceful Turkish border town of Kilis, but more funding is needed to keep it going.
KILIS, Turkey — On March 24, the Turkish army took control of Syria’s Afrin province, with objective of securing the strategic border region from People's Protection Units (YPG) forces that fought in the US-led battle against the Islamic State in northern Syria.
As the Syrian war enters its eighth year, the bloodshed continues to rattle lives inside the war-torn country while forcing a continuing refugee spillover into the neighboring countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. But as Ankara continues to advance in Syria, the climate in Kilis, one of Turkey’s most strategic border towns, seems strangely harmonious. Unlike most other such cities in the region, Syrian refugees are living amicably there alongside the host community.
