logo
episode-header-image
Jul 28
17m 26s

The Syrian businesses leaving Turkey

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Syria remains an unstable country, with outbreaks of deadly violence, yet many refugees in Turkey are still choosing to return home after their brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December.

We’re in Little Syria, in Turkey’s largest city Istanbul, where lines of Arabic businesses once stood and where the streets are now noticeably quieter. As Syrians return home, what impact is that having on the Turkish economy?

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presented and produced by Emily Wither

(Picture: Women pass by Syrian shops at Malta bazaar, with other mainly Syrian shopkeepers at Fatih district in Istanbul, Turkey, on the 6th of December 2024, two days before Bashar al-Assad was overthrown. At the time, 500,000 Syrian refugees were living in Istanbul. Credit: Getty Images)

Up next
Yesterday
Business Daily meets: Fani Titi, Investec CEO
The South African grew up under the racist apartheid system as one of 14 children. He looked set for a life in farming, until a chance event took him down a different path – ultimately becoming CEO of the multinational banking group, Investec. Presenter: Leanna Byrne Producer: El ... Show More
17m 27s
Oct 8
Small country: Big tariffs
We head to Switzerland, a small but very successful country with a population of just 9 million.And now coping with some of US President Donald Trump’s highest tariffs. In August the original threat of 31% tariffs was raised to 39%. Two months on, efforts to negotiate with Washin ... Show More
17m 30s
Oct 7
Should we expect more airline delays?
Passengers are suffering more disruption as technology at airports, airlines and air traffic control is failing.But why is aviation software becoming more prone to failure and vulnerable to cyber-attacks, and what is the solution to preventing delays?Presented and produced by Rus ... Show More
17m 28s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2024
Trouble up North: Syria and Turkey look to normalise ties
This week on The New Arab Voice podcast, we look at the potential for a normalisation deal between Syria and Turkey. In recent years, Syria has been welcomed back into the regional fold, and yet Damascus has still not normalised with Ankara, and Turkish troops remain on Syrian so ... Show More
28m 59s
Dec 2024
Turkish lawmaker Cengiz Candar: 'Turkey's endgame is to destroy Kurdish autonomy in Syria'
Cengiz Candar is a lawmaker for the pro-Kurdish DEM party in Turkey who has spent long years in the Middle East. Candar outlines how Israel has hugely benefited from the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, while Turkey — another big winner — is seeking to thwart Kurdish aspiration ... Show More
38m 22s
Oct 2019
Turkey Invades Syria as the United States Abandons the Kurds
Kurdish forces have a long history of siding with the United States. And the United States has a long history of eventually selling them out.  The latest iteration of this dynamic unfolded when Donald Trump ordered a small US military contingent to withdraw from Kurdish controlle ... Show More
30m 37s
Mar 2025
Turmoil in Turkey: the people vs Erdogan
The arrest and jailing of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, Turkey’s main political challenger to President Erdogan, has sent shockwaves across the country. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest his detention and express growing concerns over Turkey's shift to ... Show More
32m 34s
Dec 2024
Fighting over oil continues in northern Syria
Syrian rebels have set fire to the tomb of ex-President Bashar al-Assad's father in his former hometown in the western Syrian Latakia province. Meanwhile, shops are reopening and people are returning to work in Damascus as day-to-day life gradually resumes. We look at the impact ... Show More
47m 30s
Feb 2025
What role can Turkey play in the new Syria?
As Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s transitional president, meets Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, we ask: what role is Turkey seeking to play when it comes to regional security? Then we discuss Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to the White House to see Donald Trump. Plus, a ceasefire i ... Show More
58m 48s
Jun 2024
Nord-Est syrien : la vie sous les feux de l’armée turque
C’est un conflit existentiel qui se déroule dans un pays meurtri par une décennie de guerre civile. Le Nord-Est de la Syrie et son administration autonome, créé il y a 10 ans, ciblé sans cesse par la Turquie. La Turquie qui accuse les Kurdes syriens de terrorisme… Et réplique par ... Show More
19m 30s
Mar 2025
Erdoğan, not Trump, is Europe's new best friend on security
Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul’s mayor and the main political rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been arrested. So what is Europe doing about it? Staying pretty quiet, it seems. Mass protests are breaking out across Turkey but Brussels is keeping its counsel. In this ... Show More
36m 58s
Aug 2022
Saniye Dedeoğlu on Syrian migrants, work and precarity in Turkey
Saniye Dedeoglu on “Syrian Refugees and Agriculture in Turkey Work, Precarity, Survival” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). The book looks at Syrians' integration into Turkey’s labour market, its effect on relations between men and women, and the role of child labour in the agriculture sect ... Show More
31m 46s
Dec 2024
What Syria's Political Future May Look Like | Emma Beals
As a journalist who covers international humanitarian crises, I'm accustomed to seeing masses of refugees fleeing their homes for safer locations. But in Syria over the last several days, the reverse has happened. Thousands upon thousands of displaced people are now returning hom ... Show More
28m 45s