From the heart of this sprawling megacity to its overflowing distant suburbs, Syrians are finding lifelines in hole-in-the-wall service centers as they seek a way to Europe – or are forced to stop, exhausted often out of cash and out of hope. Turkey has largely kept an open-door policy during the 5-year Syrian war, hosting 2.7 million Syrian refugees so far, and a handful of Turkish nongovernmental organizations have stepped in to help as the influx has grown. Syrians constituted the bulk of the million refugees who made it to Europe last year by sea, risking their lives in perilous boat crossings from Turkey to Greek islands.