Pathetic images of the lifeless body of three year old boy Aylan Kurdi that was seen lying on the shore of Bodrum port city of Turkey stunned the whole world by showing the dreadful face of the Syrian refugee crisis.
Aylan Kurdi was among the lakhs of Syrians who are trying to leave Turkey and reach more promising nearby islands like kos (22 km from Bodrum) and Lesbo of Greece. From there, they travel to mainland Greece or Serbia; then to Hungary and finally up to Germany in the northern Europe.
The Aegean Sea is a subdivision of the Mediterranean Sea and lies between Greece in the north and Turkey in the south.
As per an estimate, Turkey is home to nearly 2 millions of Syrians who fled their country to escape from the ongoing civil war.
Syrian Refugee Crisis
- The armed conflict began in March 2011 between the forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule.
- The conflict was further aggravated after the involvement of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2014.
- The violence has so far led to the death of around 2 lakh civilians and internal displacement of 7.6 million people.
- It has also led to the biggest refugee crisis in the recent memory as around 3.9 million people are seeking refuge in neighboring countries of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
- Moreover, the refugee crisis is also spreading to the Europe in recent times that is evident from thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean Sea, unrest in Hungary, Serbia, Greece, etc due to inward flux of Syrian refugees.
