President of UN General Assembly to visit Turkey

Volkan Bozkir, the President of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), will today visit Syrian refugees and the UN cross-border humanitarian operations in Hatay, Turkey.

Turkey is currently a major gateway for humanitarian aid entering Syria. Hatay is also host to roughly 430,000 Syrian refugees, one-third of its provincial population, triggering growing anti-refugee sentiment. As employment opportunities are limited in the small province, young people are struggling to compete with Syrians, who reportedly accept lower wages and are exempt from taxes. Furthermore, a recession due to COVID-19 has exacerbated job competition and poverty across Turkey, making humanitarian assistance difficult to sustain.

While Ankara has been calling for the international community to share its burden, all of the UN Security Council’s efforts to pass a resolution on the Syrian crisis have been vetoed by Russia since Moscow strongly supports the Assad regime. Bozkir’s visit to Hatay may bring some hope of international help—expect the UNGA to call for an immediate halt to violence and more sustainable humanitarian aid. However, as most UNGA resolutions are legally non-binding, they are likely to have a limited effect on the humanitarian situation in Syria.