Syrians flood into Turkey as Isis pushes to border towns

More than 130,000 Syrians have poured across the border with Turkey in three days, Ankara said on Monday, as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or Isis, stepped up its onslaught against Syria's Kurds.

The fighting - centred around the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, also known by its Arabic name of Ayn al-Arab - has sent Syrian Kurds fleeing to Turkey at an unprecedented rate, even as Kurds from elsewhere in the region attempt to enter Syria to take the fight to Isis itself.

The Kurds of the region are scattered between Northern Iraq, where they are largely autonomous; Syria, where Kurdish forces have long been battling Isis; Iran; and Turkey.

Numan Kurtulmus, a Turkish deputy prime minister, on Monday said more than 130,000 refugees had crossed into Turkey since Friday. He added that the refugees were being admitted into the country "in an organised way" at two main entry posts, although some Turkish reports suggested border gates were being closed in response to the inflow. Turkey already houses well over 1m Syrian refugees.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that a total of about 150,000 Syrian Kurds had fled the Isis onslaught and said 800 people were unaccounted for.

At the weekend, Carol Batchelor, the UN refugee agency's representative in Turkey, suggested it was the biggest such flight since the Syrian war began.

"I don't think in the last three and a half years we have seen 100,000 cross in two days," she told Reuters. "This is a bit of a measure of how this situation is unfolding and the very deep fear people have."

Several activists contacted by the Financial Times said they had documented individual cases of villagers near Kobani being beheaded, shot or taken away by Isis fighters.

"The front inside is collapsing," said Sadradin Kinno, an activist who has now left the town. "The circle is tightening . . . There are still civilians who are refusing to leave, including my own father. I am worried the situation will be a disaster." "

There were clashes close to the border at the weekend, when Turkish authorities sought to stop some Turkish Kurds from entering Syria to fight Isis.

Turkey has been wary of inflaming tension with the jihadi group, with which it now shares an extensive border, although Ankara's freedom of manoeuvre may have increased since Sunday, when 46 Turkish hostages previously held by Isis were freed.

Ακολουθήστε το Euro2day.gr στο Google News!Παρακολουθήστε τις εξελίξεις με την υπογραφη εγκυρότητας του Euro2day.gr

FOLLOW USΑκολουθήστε τη σελίδα του Euro2day.gr στο Linkedin

Footage of Kobani posted online appeared to show a virtual ghost town, despite the presence of Kurdish volunteers fighting Isis. In recent days, the group's fighters have taken dozens of outlying villages.

Human rights activist Mustafa Ismail said Isis took the village of Kharkhariya, 10km west of Kobani, and executed the five residents who chose to remain. However, the militants appeared to be halted on the eastern front, he said.

"There are still some residents inside Kobani, and there are some stores that have opened to provide them with goods . . . most of the young Kurdish men of Kobani have relocated to the Turkish side to provide aid to residents."

Mr Ismail said Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces had entered Syria, despite denials by Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government, a possible sign of solidifying ranks among the Kurds in the confrontation against Isis.

Additional reporting by Funja Guler

© The Financial Times Limited 2014. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation