Syrian Kurds started going back to the border town of Tel Abyad from Turkey on Wednesday after Kurdish militia captured the strategic crossing from Islamic State.
Syrian Kurdish-led forces said they had captured the town at the Turkish border on Monday, driving Islamic State away from the frontier in an advance backed by US-led air strikes.
The United Nations refugee agency said this week more than 23,000 refugees fleeing fighting in northern Syria had crossed into Turkey. Some 70 percent are women and children, the agency said.
On Wednesday, Syrians formed long queues on Turkey's Akcakale crossing to return home. Many had fled with only the clothes they were wearing.
Over 40,000 people have been killed in an armed campaign by Kurdish rebels in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. Ankara has been conducting peace talks with rebel leaders, but suspicions remain, especially among nationalists, that Turkey's Kurds could seek to unite with Syrian and Iraqi Kurds in a contiguous state.