YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. Around 20,000 refugees who had left Syria because of the war and settled in Lebanon, have returned to their homes since the beginning of the year through the Jeydet Yabus checkpoint, deputy director of the Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides of Syria General Major Yevgeny Kharchenko told reporters.

“According to our estimates, since the beginning of 2018, more than 20,000 refugees returned to permanent residence locations through the Jeydet Yabus checkpoint,” he said.

According to the Center, the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is 1,5 million.

The Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria or Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in the Syrian Arab Republic, founded 23 February 2016, is a "peace monitoring center and information office" whose aim is to speed the peace negotiations between the Syrian Arab Republic and opposition groups in the ongoing war.

It is headquartered in Khmeimim Air Base, Latakia, Syria. It is also tasked with coordinating humanitarian missions and organizing localities to sign up to cease fire agreements

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan