Over 3,000 Syrian Turkmen 'Flee to Turkey'

More than 3,000 members of Syria's Turkmen minority have fled across the Turkish border over the past three days to escape an offensive by pro-government forces in Syria's northwest, a Turkish official said Sunday.

"To date, over 3,100 Turkmen have entered Turkey where they are being supported by the authorities" in southern Hatay province, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Most of the refugees, including women, children and elderly people, arrived from a camp in the Syrian village of Yamadi after entering Turkey via its Yayladagi border post in Hatay, the official said.

Several hundred more are expected to cross into Turkey in coming days as the Turkish-built camp was being evacuated after pro-regime forces backed by Russian airstrikes made advances in Syria's coastal Latakia province. 

Dogan news agency said a group of refugees are already being housed in a new camp in Yayladagi that was built for the Turkmen minority. 

Pro-government forces overran the key rebel-held town of Rabia in Latakia last week, prompting the displacement of Turkmen refugees, who had taken refugee in Yamadi, located 400 meters from the Turkish border. 

Turkey has voiced concern about Russian air raids in northern Syria because of the Turkmen minority in the area, a Turkic-speaking people who have had an uneasy relationship with the regime of President Bashar Assad.

The Turkmen have for decades tried to maintain their language and culture in Syria, resisting Arab assimilation policies of the Damascus regime, which in turn has frequently regarded them as a fifth column working in favor of Ankara.

Turkey is hosting at least 2.5 million refugees from Syria's civil war.