Growing anger towards Syrian refugees in Turkey after the earthquake

Kilis, Turkey –

On the third day after a devastating earthquake destroyed his home and nearly killed him and his family, Bassel, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee living in Turkey, managed to find an empty plot of land to pitch a tent as a tent. temporary shelter for his family.

But the deadline did not last.

“Turks in the area came and told us they didn’t want us here – that we were to blame for the earthquake and that we were not welcome to stay,” said Basil, who only gave his first name to avoid harassment. “They started to dismantle the tent and yell at us until we left.”

He and his family were the victims of a growing wave of resentment against the more than 3.6 million Syrians who fled their homeland during the 12-year-old civil war and settled across the border in Turkey, which hosts more Syrian refugees than any other country.

Displaced Syrian refugees gather to receive food at a makeshift camp at a sports center near Kilis, Turkey, after the devastating earthquake on February 6.

(Tom Nicholson / For The Times)

More than 1.6 million of them live in areas severely affected by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that shook southern Turkey and northern Syria last week. With the death toll rising above 40,000 and millions facing homelessness in what the World Health Organization calls the region’s worst natural disaster in a century, anti-refugee sentiment has soared in Turkey, spurred on by politicians hoping to capitalize on public hostility ahead of a general election aimed at May. .

In recent days, as people’s grief turns to anger, Syrians have become the target of a disinformation campaign accusing them of looting destroyed homes and stealing aid or blaming them as the cause of the disaster that struck Turkey.

Observers say the main driver of the campaign is Umit Ozdag, a far-right politician who has long pushed for the expulsion of Syrians from the country. In the aftermath of the earthquake, he posted vitriol-filled messages on social media describing their presence as a malicious threat to national security and organized marches to expel Syrians from shelters. Meanwhile, anti-refugee slogans such as “Syrians are no longer welcome” are circulating on billboards, in conversations, on TV talk shows and on social media.

The result is mounting harassment of refugees across the country.

In the port city of Mersin, Syrians were evicted in a shelter set up in a girls’ dormitory to make room for Turkish citizens; Witnesses said they were taken to the city of Adana, 40 miles away, and dumped in the street. The authorities in Muğla Province warned the refugees that they would not receive any assistance and that they should seek help in other provinces. Even the Syrians who tried to help save the earthquake survivors were attacked.

Syrian refugees living in Turkey, who fled the war in their homeland, were hit hard by the February 6 earthquake that killed at least 37,000 people.

(Tom Nicholson / For The Times)

This is what happened to Osama and his friends in Antakya, one of the hardest hit cities. On Friday, they were transporting the body of their friend who had been mutilated from the wreckage and an electric bike for another friend when they stopped to get soup from Khairi Street Kitchen.

The volunteers asked them where they were from, and called the police when they said they were Syrian. Osama, who gave his first name for fear of reprisals, said that before the officers had a chance to investigate, a mob gathered around them, half of whom tried to beat them while the other half tried to protect them. The police finally arrive and put them in handcuffs and take them away; They were released hours later.

“People are hurt, and you can’t blame them. Of course, for someone to steal is not easy at this time, but even so, I’ve never felt this level of racism before,” Osama said.

Many Syrians take pains to point out that the authorities have provided them with services and that they have received support from Turkish friends and colleagues.

“The employer gave us our salary without delay and even sent us heating supplies when we were in the shelter,” said Mustafa, a 31-year-old cleaner here in Kilis who declined to give his last name.

But few would argue that anti-Syrian sentiment has been a growing concern in the country for several years now. When the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Turkey became the first destination to flee the violence. Accommodating them has become central policy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, which has spent $40 billion sheltering refugees and giving them jobs, education and health care.

More than 1.6 million Syrians who fled the civil war at home live in parts of Turkey badly hit by the February 6 earthquake.

(Tom Nicholson / For The Times)

For most Syrians, Turkey was meant to be a temporary stop, either as a stop on the asylum road in Europe or a place to wait until the situation back home improved enough to return. But with European measures to restrict immigration, and with conflict at a standstill, many remained.

With the Turkish economy deteriorating sharply in recent years, the refugee issue has become a major political battleground, with the opposition seeing it as a way to overthrow Erdogan.

“Bring back the Syrians,” said Begum Basdas, a human rights and migration researcher at the Center for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School in Berlin, with the election approaching. She added that long before the February 6 earthquake, people were “absolutely frustrated” with the government’s inability to come up with a lasting solution.

Refugees themselves have become convenient scapegoats, Basdas said — “the classic scenario of not actually targeting the authorities but those who are at risk because they are easier targets.”

Many refugees from the Syrian civil war live in slums in Turkey that were devastated by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck on February 6.

(Tom Nicholson / For The Times)

Government regulations aimed at restricting the movement of Syrians across Turkey exacerbate society’s problems. Syrians are usually prohibited from leaving the cities in which they are registered without permission from the local authorities. Taha Ghazi, a Syrian from Istanbul with Turkish citizenship, said that although this injunction was mostly lifted because of the earthquake, Istanbul is still off-limits, removing an important option for many Syrians fleeing the earthquake zone.

“Istanbul has the highest proportion of relatives” of Syrian refugees, he said. “So what is the benefit? What did the Syrian refugee gain from being allowed to go to another governorate?”

The government has also banned refugees from entering the Turkish-controlled northern regions of Syria, and has only allowed approved Syrian corpses to be transported from Turkish hospitals and issued an accompanying permit, signed by the region’s governor, to be transported across the border.

“It took two days to get the permit,” said Samer, a 32-year-old Syrian refugee from war-torn Aleppo, who was transporting the bodies of two children — one of them five years old — to their close relatives. Bab al-Hawa border crossing.

Others struggle to find impossible options, like Samar Bawaba, who sat with her six children in the back of a truck among burlap sacks of rice and other supplies.

She said their home in Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter, was now reduced to rubble, and that Turkish authorities deported her husband three months ago. With nowhere to turn, the family wanted to return to Syria, but to do so would mean giving up their Turkish temporary residence permit; Without it, they will not be able to cross back into Turkey.

“I don’t have anything here. What am I going to do? I can’t stay here in this truck or in a tent,” she said. “I know it’s not easy to go back to Syria, but what is the other solution?”

A sports center near Kilis, Turkey, has been converted into a shelter for people displaced by the earthquake, including refugees from the civil war in Syria.

(Tom Nicholson / For The Times)

Erdogan has repeatedly vowed that his government will start rebuilding quickly and pay up to one year’s rent for those who do not wish to stay in tents. But there is no clarity on whether that will include the Syrians, Basdas said.

“Will the state and relief organizations provide sustainable housing for all those affected by the earthquake without discrimination? There is no sustainable solution for anyone. How do we deal with the IDPs in the long term?” she said.

“This affects everyone, but in these cases, people who are already at high risk, whether they are children, women, community members, refugees or migrants,” Basdas said, “are more at risk.”

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Even in death, warns Ghazi, an Istanbul-based refugee advocate, Syrians may be forgotten, too. Experts say unregistered refugees, who make up a large proportion of the Syrian population in Turkey, are not being recorded in the official casualty figures.

“The most affected areas that have been bombed are the slums with old buildings, which tend to be the ones with refugees,” Ghazi said.

“I fear that the highest death rate will be among the Syrians.”

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