The concern is on their lips and fatigue can be read in their eyes. In small groups, suitcases and baluchons in hand, they have just crossed, Wednesday, June 18, the imposing Turkish customs grid at the crossing point of Gürbulak, located in the extreme east of the country, very close to Armenia. Behind them, they leave Iran and the Israeli bombings which they have fled as quickly as possible and by their own means.
They are of all ages, many women without sailing, families with one or two children, rarely more. All say they have a dual nationality or a residence permit in a third country, and suggest that this is a requirement by the Iranian authorities to leave the country, according to various sources. From the first strikes, on June 13, videos circulated on social networks showing a crowd of Iranians blocked in border posts, on the Iranian side. Since then, the flows observed since remain measured.
Amed (the first names were changed), he has just set a foot in Türkiye for the first time. Visibly lost, wandering from one minibus to another, this 33 -year -old engineer, working in California and from the Racht region, north of Tehran, seeks to join Kars, three hours away, where an airliner awaits him for Istanbul. “Elsewhere, in closer cities, everything was complete, I took the last place”,, he testifies.
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Source: Lemonde