Mobs attack Syrian refugees in Türkiye with fists and knives

Over the past two days, groups of angry men in half a dozen cities across Turkey have targeted Syrian refugees living among them, damaging their shops and cars and attacking them with fists and knives.

Across the border, in parts of northern Syria where Turkey exerts influence, Syrians have clashed with Turkish soldiers among them, throwing stones at their vehicles, tearing down Turkish flags and condemning them in street protests.

The scattered violence, which has left at least seven people dead in Syria, according to a war monitor, has exposed growing cracks in coexistence between Syrians and Turks on both sides of their shared border. After years of generally peaceful relations, recent political changes and deepening economic distress have brought tensions to the forefront.

Many Turks have come to resent the 3.1 million Syrian refugees in their country, accusing them, with or without evidence, of fueling economic turmoil, including low wages and persistent inflation that topped 75% in May.

Many Syrians opposed to President Bashar al-Assad's government no longer see Turkey as their greatest protector, but now fear it will abandon them. Support for sending Syrian refugees home has spread across Turkey's political spectrum.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who cut ties with Syria in 2011 and backed rebels seeking to topple Assad, said last week he had not ruled out meeting his former foe to try to repair relations.

Speaking by phone from Idlib, a northern Syrian province where protesters clashed with Turkish soldiers this week, a Syrian activist who gave his name as Abu Samer al-Halabi said the region was like a balloon, about to burst.

This tension has deep reasons, he said. Above the table, the Turks are with us, but under the table, they are not.

After the Syrian civil war began in 2011, Turkey opened its border to refugees fleeing the Syrian army’s brutal attacks on rebel communities. Turkey has built camps to house them, welcomed political opposition to Mr. al-Assad and supported rebels in northern Syria fighting his forces.

In recent years, as the war dragged on, Turkey deployed its own forces into rebel-held areas in Syria along the border, stationing soldiers along sensitive front lines to deter advances and forging close ties with rebel groups in a so-called safe zone to which it hoped Syrian refugees in Turkey would return.

But relatively few have done so, leaving millions of Syrians scattered across Turkey. They generally live peacefully alongside their Turkish hosts, many learning to speak Turkish and sending their children to the country’s schools. While some have set up businesses, many earn low wages in manufacturing and agriculture.

Many Turks opposed the arrival of so many Syrians in their country, but their views of the refugees have worsened since a cost-of-living crisis began in 2018, leaving many Turks in a state of increased poverty. Encouraged by right-wing politicians and journalists, many have turned their anger toward the refugees.

This week's unrest was sparked by allegations that a Syrian man sexually assaulted his 7-year-old cousin in a public toilet in Kayseri, a city in central Turkey. The man was arrested and the girl, her mother and siblings were placed under state protection while police investigate, Turkish authorities said.

That night, angry men in Kayseri attacked Syrian cars, shops and homes, setting some of them on fire, according to footage posted on social media and broadcast by Turkish television channels.

On Monday, similar attacks took place in half a dozen other cities, including Hatay, Konya and Istanbul, where men marched with batons through neighborhoods where Syrians live and threw stones at their buildings. In Gaziantep, a group of men surrounded a Syrian man and stabbed him in the leg, forcing him to flee down a busy street, according to surveillance footage released by Turkish media.

Addressing a gathering of Justice and Development Party mayors on Monday, Erdogan condemned the violence and accused his political opponents of fanning it.

“We will not achieve anything by fueling xenophobia and hatred against refugees in society,” Erdogan said, adding that the attacks were carried out by a small group inspired by this toxic opposition discourse.

On Tuesday, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on social media that security forces had arrested 474 people in connection with the violence.

As news of the attacks in Turkey spread in Syria, protesters and armed groups targeted Turkish forces, accusing the Turks of racism toward Syrians. Activists in the region say anger is also fueled by fears that Turkey is seeking to reestablish ties with Mr. al-Assad, a scenario that could endanger Syrians living in areas currently outside government control.

Unrest has broken out in several cities in northern Syria, with rebels and protesters clashing with Turkish troops. Protesters tried to storm the headquarters of the Turkish-backed administration in the city of Afrin on Monday, sparking clashes that left six people dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based war monitor. A seventh person was killed elsewhere.

Turkey responded by withdrawing some of its troops from their posts, reinforcing others and closing border crossings between Turkey and Syria on Tuesday.

Serhat Erkmen, a Turkish security analyst who conducts research in northern Syria, said in an interview that armed groups in the region were worried about the possibility of a rapprochement between Turkey and Syria. Many of their members fled north from other parts of Syria, fearing they would lose the Turkish protection they had been counting on.

For them, the idea of ​​reconciliation between Ankara and Damascus may mean a return to the status quo, but it is not possible to return to the pre-war status quo, Erkmen said. When they hear about peace negotiations, they feel that they are going to lose their future.

Turkey may be able to calm the situation now, but Mr. Erkmen said he expected interactions between the Syrian and Turkish governments to continue to develop, eventually bringing Mr. Erdogan and Mr. al-Assad together.

It will happen, he said. First, high-level contacts, then contacts at the leadership level.

Hwaida Saad Report from Beirut, Lebanon.