Nearly 5,000 Syrian refugees crossed the Syrian-Turkish border last week, fleeing violence and a crack-down by Syrian forces in the town of Jisr al-Shughour.
The refugees massed on the border after government forces began attacking dissidents who demonstrated against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday described Syrian government's actions as "not humane," saying Turkey cannot continue to support the administration as violence escalated in Syria. Meanwhile, Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Friday warned against increasing loss of lives in Syria, saying Turkey's civilian and military leadership were prepared "for the worst scenarios."
The Syrian refugees are being accommodated in tent cities in Yayladagi, Altinozu and Boynuyogun towns of south Turkey's Hatay Province, where nearly 600 tents were set up, and around 6,000 blankets and 3,000 beds as well as mobile kitchens, bathrooms and toilets were sent to the region.
The official said most Syrians entering Turkey were elderly people, children and women, and about 60 wounded people were receiving treatment on Friday. The Syrian refugees were met at the frontier by Turkish authorities and their entries were entirely under control, the official said, noting that Turkey does not need international aid at the moment to shelter Syrians.
Observers voiced concern that the Syrian refugee situation could further escalate, recalling the Iraqi Kurdish refugee crisis in the aftermath of the Iraq wars. Turkey then sheltered nearly half a million refugees for several years with limited international support, shouldering the hundreds of millions of dollars of cost on its own.
