page_title: Turkey's migrant crisis
section_title: Influx from Gulf War
hierarchical_section_title: Turkey's migrant crisis / Major refugee flows / Influx from Gulf War
caption_attribution_description: English: Kurdish refugees travel by truck between their mountain campsites and tent cities established by U.S. military personnel. Such facilities are being established as part of Operation Provide Comfort, an Allied effort to aid the refugees who fled the forces of Saddam Hussein in northern Iraq.
context_page_description: Turkey's migrant crisis, was a period during the 2010s characterized by high numbers of people arriving in Turkey. Turkey became the top refugee receiving country in 2014, mid-2015, and mid-2016 reported on UNHCR registered refugees by country/territory of asylum [sort each year on descending]. Turkey's refugee breakdown in 2019 was "neighbor countries:" Syrians 3.6 M, Iraqis 142,000, Iranians 39,000, "Asia:" Afghans 172,000, "Africa:" 11,700. Reported by UNHCR in 2018, Turkey hosted 63.4% of all the "registered Syrian refugees." As of 26 June 2020, refugees of the Syrian Civil War in Turkey numbered 3,591,892.
  Turkey is part of a pattern established during the European migrant crisis, which large groups of immigrants from other continents used Turkey as a "transit country" during "major refugee flows" began in the mid-20th century. Part of migrant crisis of the 21st century, Turkey received refugees from Iran-Iraq War and Iranian Revolution, Gulf War, War in Afghanistan and Syrian Civil War.
context_section_description: 1.85 million Kurds fled to the borders of Turkey and Iran.  About 450,000 Kurds were on the  mountainsides where Turkey-Iraq border. UN SC Resolution 688 was passed, which paved the way for the Operation Northern Watch (ONW), the successor to Operation Provide Comfort, was a Combined Task Force (CTF) charged with enforcing its own no-fly zone above the 36th parallel in Iraq, following refugee flow to Turkey. 
  Final tally for Gulf War was at least 1 Million people fled (almost 30% of the population) to Iran, Turkey and Pakistan.
caption: Iraqi Kurds fleeing to Turkey in April 1991, during the Gulf War
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