[Salon] Anti-Syrian mobs attack refugees in Türkiye - ArabDigest.org guest post

Anti-Syrian mobs attack refugees in Türkiye Summary: triggered by allegations promoted online, violence against Syrian refugees has soared across Türkiye. We thank an Arab Digest contributor for today’s newsletter. Anti-refugee riots earlier this summer have once again put the almost 4 million Syrians in Türkiye on tenterhooks, with 3.6 million of them registered as refugees—more than in any other country. To make matters worse, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is considering extending an invitation to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who many Syrians deem as the cause of their unstable and insecure lives in Türkiye. The anti-Syrian unrest was set off after allegations circulated that a Syrian man had molested his 7-year-old cousin in Kayseri, a city in central Türkiye. The same evening, Turkish men in Kayseri ransacked Syrian shops, houses, and cars, which have licence plates with a foreigner designation. In the following days, these attacks spread to a half-dozen other cities in Türkiye. Nearly 400 shops, cars and homes were attacked across the country. In Gaziantep, a Syrian man was surrounded by a Turkish mob and stabbed in the leg. In Antalya, a Syrian teenager was fatally attacked. Authorities eventually intervened after three days of violence, arresting hundreds of people. Syrians stayed at home, with some opting to keep their shops closed while other day labourers missed work. (Under 10 percent of Syrians have work permits.) Others declined to speak Arabic in public or changed their clothes to try to avoid harassment. Children weren’t sent to school. All the while, they are still technically regarded as “guests” in the country, subject to movement restrictions. More than 470 people have been taken into custody after crowds attacked Syrian shops and cars in central Turkey [photo credit: @ScharoMaroof] Türkiye is in the throes of an economic crisis – much of it induced by Erdoğan’s economic policies - with low wages and inflation exceeding 75 percent so Syrian refugees are an easy scapegoat for many Turks’ financial distress and one that deflects attention away from the government’s failings on the economic front. In northern Syria, where Türkiye exerts control, Syrians protested and threw rocks at Turkish soldiers in solidarity with the treatment of their compatriots across the border. Some of the protests were met with gunfire which led to the deaths of at least seven Syrians—only leading to further divisions between Turks and Syrians. Within this fallout, Turkish opposition parties called for mass deportations. In response to opposition pressure, President Erdoğan appears to be seeking the help of the Syrian government to address the issue. He announced at a NATO summit on July 11 that he had requested to meet with his Syrian counterpart. This is the latest in recent efforts to bridge a rapprochement between the two governments, after Erdoğan had originally backed anti-Assad forces in the early days of the Syrian revolution. In December 2022, Turkish and Syrian defence ministers participated in talks in Russia, the first ministerial level meeting between the rivals since 2011. These earlier talks never gained momentum, but a Turkish newspaper published a roadmap at the end of July that could form the basis of a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding. This would include Türkiye banning Syrian opposition activities, extraditing certain wanted criminals, evacuating troops from northern Syria and handing over Syrian opposition border crossings. In exchange, Syria would take back two million Syrian refugees from Türkiye, allow for the political participation of some Syrian opposition and work to eliminate Kurdish militants connected with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the latter designated as a terrorist organisation by Ankara. All of this has pushed Syrians in Türkiye into an even more precarious position. Some Syrians have started to sell off their assets and started to prepare to emigrate from the country, with onward options to the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, or Europe. However, the corresponding announcement by Italy that it will soon send an ambassador to Syria, the first G7 country to relaunch its diplomatic mission in over a decade, does not bode well for Syrian refugees trying to get into the European Union. For those Syrians who refuse to return to Syria out of safety concerns, the recent political and social dynamics playing out in Türkiye are narrowing their options fast while making them lose any thoughts of attempting to integrate into Turkish society over the long-term. Members can leave comments about this newsletter on the Arab Digest website