ANKARA, Turkey — As Nasir Hackasim ran home to rescue his family when Syrian soldiers shot at his kebab restaurant, he remembered some childhood advice: Find safety in water.

So the 58-year-old took his wife and nine sons and set off from the town of A’zaz through a small river to cross the border into Turkey and escape Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces hunting him for refusing to spy on his patrons, the rebels. He ended up at a camp now housing 13,600 refugees.