‘No Aliens’: Allegations of Discrimination Distort Turkey’s Response to the Earthquake

In the early hours of the morning, Daria Gilani, who asked that her real name not be used, woke up on the floor crashing.

She and some friends – all Iranian asylum seekers – came to the “tense” and “sleepless” streets of Mersin, a port city on Turkey’s southeastern Mediterranean coast, and eventually found refuge in an improvised shelter set up for survivors of devastating destruction. Earthquake and aftershocks.

But they were met with hostility.

The group says they were told “there is no place for foreigners” and kicked out by a security guard.

While they were eventually allowed in, after complaining to the center’s director, Gilani and her friends say they were separated from the Turkish nationals, and placed in a different part of the building with other refugees.

The second night it was the same story.

“The guard was very rude and refused to let us in,” she told Euronews. “I decided to camp out in the streets so I would never face the way they treated us again.”

And they are not alone with this experience.

In March, the independent media organization Syria Direct reported that in some cases Syrians have been denied assistance by state-linked organizations, even though the vast majority of them are receiving assistance.

They cited the case of Bilal who – after losing 15 relatives in the disaster – was thrown from a shelter by five Turkish police officers, asking, “Do you want to leave in peace, or do we need to use force?”

“Solidarity in ruin”

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake and chain of deadly aftershocks on February 6 has hit southeastern Turkey and Syria – home to millions of refugees.

According to Didim Demircan, Oxfam’s Deputy Executive Director in Turkey, an estimated 13 million people have been affected in an area twice the size of the Netherlands.

Millions remain displaced and in dire need of basic assistance.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, which hit 11 provinces, she said the “significant” dearth of shelter in the disaster area had caused problems.

However, the humanitarian was “not sure whether there was deliberate discrimination against refugees”, instead emphasizing “economic inequality”.

“Unfortunately, the scale of the disaster was very large,” Demirkan told Euronews. “It affected all vulnerable communities, including not only refugees but women, the poor, people living in rural areas and the elderly.”

“All the grievances and inequalities have increased dramatically because of this earthquake,” she added.

Studies have shown that women and girls are disproportionately affected by natural disasters, exacerbating risks of violence and existing gender inequalities.

Like other refugees, both Turkish and foreign, Gilani has struggled to get regular aid, with NGO offices closed or destroyed and individual asylum packages put on hold by the immigration office.

An asylum seeker in Turkey for several years, she fled political persecution in Iran, but is now confined to the city because Turkish rules prevent her from leaving.

“The case has caused great problems for many refugees,” she said, adding that some asylum seekers closed their files and left Turkey “because of all the stress” caused by the earthquake.

“they blame us”

Refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria in particular have been welcomed by sympathetic Turks over the past decade.

But xenophobia and racism against refugees in Turkey – the largest in the world – has escalated over the years, as the country’s economy hits the rocks.

Inflation has been going on at an astounding rate for several months, pushing millions of Turks to the brink.

“Most Turks have negative views of refugees and immigrants, just like the way the security guard treated us,” Gilani said. “But this is not a systemic issue.”

Refugees are the cause of the economic problems and tensions faced by the Turkish people. Now with the critical situation due to earthquakes and limited facilities, they are showing their frustration.”

However, Damkaran, who is helping organize Oxfam’s humanitarian response, said the natural disaster had a “compensating effect”.

“Young, old, rich, poor, refugee, local, everyone has been affected in the same way,” she told Euronews.

This cosmopolitanism gave rise to “solidarity” among the people struck by the earthquake, as “everyone gathered around the ruins to save each other”.

Syrians, who are estimated to number 3.6 million in Turkey, have been widely documented helping their neighbors, and vice versa.

“Just as anywhere in Europe there is a rise of right-wing populism, [racism] Politicians use it to stir up trouble within society, Damkaran said. “They blame the refugees.”

Far-right politicians have stirred up anti-Syrian sentiment in earthquake-hit regions, according to the Stockholm Center for Freedom, a Kurdish think tank based in Sweden.

In January, Umit Ozdağ, the leader of Turkey’s far-right Victory Party, launched a new campaign dubbed “Bus to Damascus” aimed at deporting Syrian refugees from Turkey.

“We are in the area all the time. We also see solidarity,” said Demicran of Oxfam.

“We all need to work together to fight this right-wing narrative.”

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