Number of Syrian refugees nears 4 million

TELL ABYAD, Syria, June 15 (UPI) -- Thousands of people attempted to flee fighting in Syria through its northern border with Turkey on Sunday as the total number of Syrian refugees since the start of the country's civil war nears 4 million.

The Akçakale border crossing station between Syria and Turkey has been inundated with thousands of people since the beginning of June. Dozens of Syrians even cut through or climbed over fences to cross into Turkey to flee fighting between the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) military group and Islamic State.

But it's not just the fight against IS -- also identified as Da'esh and by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL -- that has caused Syrians to flee. Since the start of fighting between the Assad regime and armed rebels in 2011, some 3.9 million refugees have left the country. Another 6.5 million have been internally displaced, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says.

Of those who have left Syria, 2.2 million have been registered by the UNHCR in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, 1.7 million in Turkey alone, and 24,055 throughout North Africa. The organization has earmarked $362.5 million for Syrian relief in 2015, up from revised budget of $320.2 million in 2014.

With so many Syrians trying to flee through the country's northern border, some human rights advocates are concerned about how the results of Turkey's recent national elections will affect refugees.

In a recently published opinion article, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkey's policy on Syria has become uncertain after the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) loss of parliamentary majority.

"The Republican People's Party (CHP), the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) have accused the AKP of becoming a party to the Syrian crisis by arming groups fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, allowing foreign militants to cross our borders and helping organizations such as the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat al-Nusra to become prominent forces," the article said.

Meanwhile, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus on Friday told reporters the Akçakale border gate would be closed because "there is no longer a humanitarian tragedy."

"We'll wait for them to go to safe areas in their region," he said.

Kurtulmus said said the refugees coming to the Akçakale border gate were fleeing not only fighting between the YPG and IS, but also U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.

"This scenario, which is put into effect step by step, unfortunately leads to the influx [into Turkey] of [Syrian] guests. We host 2 million Syrian brothers and sisters, regardless of their ethnic roots or sect," he said.

The Akçakale border gate has seen a steep influx of refugees since the beginning of June. On June 3, 837 people crossed into Turkey at the site, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç said. The number increased to 2,832 on June; 3,168 on June 6; and 6,597 on June 10. It's unclear how many passed through Sunday.

In May, the International Committee of the Red Cross' director of operations, Dominik Stillhart, said the humanitarian situation in the country had deteriorated sharply in the previous few weeks. He called for an increase in humanitarian relief, including food, water and medical supplies.

"The needs of the most vulnerable in both urban and rural areas continue to increase every day. The fighting is escalating in many parts of the country and more and more people are being forced to flee their homes. It is causing untold suffering," he said.

Since the start of Syria's civil war in 2011, the SOHR says 320,000 people have been killed, including 108,086 civilians.