As excitement swept through the Syrian community after Bashar al-Assad's overthrow, businesses in Turkey that rely on them for labour began quickly crunching the numbers.

"The Syrians have made a big contribution to the textile sector here. If they leave, there will be a serious labour problem," said Ali Gozcu, reflecting the widespread anxiety gripping Turkey's textile industry.

Gozcu runs ALG Tekstil, a clothing firm in Gaziantep, a southeastern Turkish city that is home to half a million Syrians.

"We don't expect a sudden departure, but if it happens, we will suffer a serious loss of labour," he told AFP, adding that 70 percent of his workers were Syrian.

And he is not alone.

"All of the workers here are Syrian," agreed Yusuf Samil Kandil, a quality controller at Beni Giy clothing, referring to the Unal district where textile firms line the run-down streets and old-fashioned mannequins stand in dusty shopfronts alongside racks of garments.

"If the Syrians leave, our labour costs will increase significantly, as well as our production costs," he told AFP.

Turkey is the world's........

© Al Monitor