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The attacks on Syrians last night also took place in other cities besides Kayseri. In Syria, however, Turkish soldiers and trucks were attacked.
Ankara – For the second night in a row, there was Türkiye Attacks on Syrians. On the night of Tuesday, Syrians, their shops and homes were attacked by angry nationalists in several cities. Several refugees from the civil war-torn country were beaten up and stabbed in the street. Several videos of blood-soaked Syrians who were victims of the racist attacks were shared on X.
Attacks on Syrians in Turkey – memories of the Sivas massacre
The images are reminiscent of the pogrom in Sivas 31 years ago. On July 2, 1993, thousands of Islamists and nationalists gathered in front of the Madimak Hotel, where mostly Alevi intellectuals and artists had gathered for a cultural festival in the central Anatolian city. The mob first threw stones at the hotel and then set it on fire. 35 people were murdered in front of the security forces, who stood by and did nothing. To this day, the Sivas massacre has not been dealt with.
Racist attacks in Türkiye lead to unrest in Syria
The attacks on Syrians in Turkey have now led to unrest in northern Syria, where the Turkish military has occupied parts of the country. Turkish trucks have been set on fire and Turkish soldiers have been attacked. The demonstrators have also attacked administrative buildings controlled by Turkey or militias allied with it. At least four people have been killed. The dissatisfaction with Turkey and its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is big.
But the unrest in the Turkish-occupied areas in Syria There are other reasons too. “There are two reasons for the riots in northern Syria, in Afrin, Jerablus in Idlib. The Syrians who are now taking to the streets are mainly Syrians that Erdogan and his army brought to the regions,” says Dr. Kamal Sido, Middle East consultant at the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) in an interview with Fr.de from IPPEN.MEDIA“The first reason is the attacks on Syrian refugees in Turkey. People feel more and more exploited by the Turkish government. They say they were used by Turkey against the Kurds and ruler Assad. And now Turkey is letting us down.”
Situation in northern Syria escalates – Syrians fear reconciliation between Erdogan and Assad
“The second reason is rumors that Erdogan wants to meet with Assad and only fight against Kurds together. People are unsettled. Even the Islamists in the region are unhappy with Erdogan. He has used the Islamists so far,” said Sido. There have been four deaths among the protesters in northern Syria so far, shot by Turkish soldiers and militias allied with them.
Erdogan does not want to interfere in “Syria’s internal affairs”
And the fear of the Syrians in the region is not unfounded. They have rebelled against Assad and now fear that Erdogan will abandon them. “We have kept our relations with Syria alive in the pastWe also met with our families,” Erdogan said in front of the cameras on Friday (June 28). “We also do not want to interfere in Syria’s internal affairs,” promised the Turkish president.
In the past, however, Erdogan had repeatedly called the Syrian president a murderer. One cannot reconcile with someone who has killed a million people. Assad is also a terrorist, the powerful man in Ankara had previously said.
Hate speech against Syrians on social media
The unrest broke out in Kayseri after a Syrian allegedly molested a five-year-old Syrian girl. The man was, however, arrested by the police beforehand. In the past, there has been repeated incitement against refugees in the country. The former opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu (CHP) promised in advance of the Turkey election 2023send around ten million illegal refugees back. And there is no end in sight to the hate campaign against Syrians in Turkey. With the hashtag #suriyelilersınırdışıedilsin (English: expel Syrians), a large number of videos of Turkish nationalists are being shared on X, which are inciting hatred against Syrian refugees in Turkey.
The harassment of a little girl by a Syrian was apparently just a way of letting off steam. In April last year, Gina Mercimek, a Syrian refugee girl, was first raped and then murdered. The perpetrators then threw the girl’s body into a water hole. The man had tied a stone to her neck. There was no outrage at the time. “On that day, there was neither an uprising by the citizens nor were the houses of Syrians burned down – because the arrested rapists and murderers were Turks,” writes journalist Nur Dogan on X. (erpe)
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