Protests and arrests as anti-Syrian riots rock Turkey | Refugee News

More than 470 people have been arrested after mobs attacked Syrian shops and cars in central Turkey.

The Turkish government is calling for calm after mob violence against Syrian refugees broke out in the central region of Melikgazi and spread to other areas.

Riots broke out after Turkish authorities arrested a Syrian man accused of sexually abusing a seven-year-old Syrian girl in the central city of Kayseri.

Turkish residents, angry after reports of the crime spread online, overturned cars in Kayseri and set fire to Syrian-run shops on Sunday night, demanding that the Syrians be expelled from the country.

The violence spread to the southern province of Hatay, where protesters set fire to a Syrian grocery store.

The riots damaged homes, workplaces and vehicles belonging to Syrian nationals, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, accusing those responsible of acting illegally in an attitude that does not correspond to our human values.

On Tuesday, Yerlikaya said that 474 people had been arrested after the provocative actions against Syrians, in a message posted on X.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the violence, which he accused of being instigated by opposition parties.

“It is unacceptable to burn houses, to vandalize and to set fire to streets,” he said Monday of the violence. “Nothing can be done by fueling xenophobia and hatred of refugees in society.”

More than 3.5 million Syrians live in Turkey, the highest number in the region, who were initially taken in as refugees when civil war broke out in Syria in 2011.

Most Syrians live under temporary protection status and many have subsequently become Turkish citizens. But in recent years, anti-refugee sentiment has been growing in Turkey, particularly against Syrians, due to a deep economic crisis that has led to high inflation.

According to Al Jazeeras' Sinem Koseoglu, this is not the first time that xenophobic protests targeting Syrians have taken place in the past three years, as Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) began to lose popularity due to the dire state of the economy and rising nationalist sentiment.

Umit Ozdag, leader of Turkey's anti-immigration Victory party, blamed the violence on the government's alleged preferential treatment of Syrian refugees.

Anti-Syrian riots broke out in Turkey in 2021 after a Turkish teenager was stabbed to death during a fight with a group of Syrian youths in the capital, Ankara.

Hundreds of people chanting anti-immigrant slogans took to the streets, vandalizing Syrian-run shops and throwing stones at refugees' homes.

Backlash in Syria

The recent violence has sparked retaliatory riots in opposition-held areas across the border in northwestern Syria, including those controlled by Turkish-backed forces.

Hundreds of Syrian protesters, some armed, took to the streets in protest. Some tore down Turkish flags, threw stones and objects at Turkish trucks and tried to storm the Jarablus border crossing, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a war monitor, said.

Four people were killed in exchanges of fire with Turkish guards, while 20 others were injured, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Protester Adel al-Faraj said he took to the streets in solidarity with our Syrian brothers in Turkey.

Our people have fled [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad can only be oppressed in Turkey, he told AFP news agency, urging Turkey to do more to end violence against Syrians.

Koseoglu, a journalist with Al Jazeeras, said another reason for the riots was recent separate announcements by Erdogan and al-Assad to restore relations.

Tensions are rising in areas controlled by the Syrian opposition over efforts to bridge the gap between the two countries, including plans to open a crossing point between government-held areas and those held by Turkish-backed opposition forces in Aleppo.