When the events in Syria began more than a decade ago, a massive population displacement movement started in three main border directions: Türkiye, Lebanon and Jordan. Türkiye and Jordan had the capabilities of dealing with emergency situations, while Lebanon has no capacity, and no decision. Türkiye was playing a political, military and regional role. Therefore, it opened the borders and welcomed the displaced, and even announced the opening of the door to those who wanted citizenship, so as to benefit from the vitality of the Syrian investors, merchants, and the compliant workers.
In Lebanon and Jordan, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees had preceded the Syrian ones, so the social, economic and legal burden had doubled: 46 percent of the prison population in Lebanon are Syrians.
When the regional political position in Ankara changed, the Turks’ position on the Syrian “foreigner” changed. He became persecuted among the others, subjected to harassment and even killing. So, all the old strife between the two peoples has arisen again. The Turkish who does not forget that the Syrian stabbed the Ottoman Empire and headed towards the West, and the Syrian who does not forget that the Turkish colonized it for several centuries.
A popular campaign against the increase in displacement has recently begun in Lebanon. According to circulating figures, the number of Syrians exceeds two and a half million, which represents about half of the Lebanese people. When the Syrian community is in such a large number, it becomes natural for individual incidents to occur, some of which being extremely violent, and the Lebanese refer to these incidents as an evidence of the dangers of the displacement. In recent days, for confronting the demographic change that has become a bitter reality, calls for a federal system have increased inside Lebanese society.
The present situation is that the displacement of 8 million Syrians appears to be rather a Turkish-Lebanese-Jordanian issue, and that Syria has nothing to do with. Damascus has announced more than once that it will not recuperate its citizens unless others undertake country's reconstruction, which is a project that, if it begins, will take several years.
Türkiye was able to stop the exodus, as well as Jordan, while Syrian youth continue to enter Lebanon by thousands. The popular campaign in Türkiye against the Syrians may have been largely orchestrated in order to intimidate them from staying or from more coming. Trouble getting out and trouble coming back. In all cases, the victim is the displaced person, who seems equally being a stranger here and a stranger there.