Turkish police detained dozens of people on Thursday (August 12) after a group of angry men smashed shops and cars believed to belong to Syrian immigrants in the capital Ankara.
As a result of a battle between locals and immigrants, a Turkish national was stabbed to death, and riots broke out late Wednesday.
Images on social media showed that dozens of men broke through the cordon and then attacked cars and shops believed to be owned by Syrian families.
In Ankara, shops belonging to Syrians were destroyed, houses were stoned to death, and vehicles belonging to Syrians were burned. The anti-refugee crowd chanted “Leave Turkey, you bitches.” The police did not interfere with the crowd. pic.twitter.com/EbL2gfunZj
— Levin Kemal (@leventkemaI) August 11, 2021
They smashed windows with stones and crowbars, tore up a metal grill in a store, then broke in and ransacked the shelves.
Amid rising dissatisfaction and economic recession in recent days, xenophobia towards Syrian refugees in Turkey has escalated.
After the locals fought the Syrians, a large number of people flooded into shops owned by the Syrians, killing one person.pic.twitter.com/7mzOMcxUQn
— Imda Oner (@im_oner) August 11, 2021
The images obtained by Agence France-Presse showed that as the violence continued into the night, the police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
An apartment showing a young man trying to break into a building by removing the metal wire from the window on the ground floor.
Kerem Kinik, the chairman of the Turkish Red Crescent Society, posted a photo on Twitter in which a child was bleeding on his face and he said he was injured in the riots.
“When does rocking a house at night become part of our tradition?” Kinnick asked.
“Many refugees contacted us. They are worried about the safety of their children. They are afraid.”
Ankara police stated that they detained 76 people suspected of participating in violence or spreading inflammatory social media posts.
The Anadolu National News Agency said that two “foreigners” were also arrested and charged with murder in this deadly battle.
Anti-immigration sentiment
The unrest in Ankara was accompanied by public opinion surveys, which showed that many Turks have high anti-immigration sentiments.
According to the 2016 agreement with the European Union to help avoid the immigration crisis on the African continent, Turkey has become home to 3.6 million Syrians.
Both parties are currently working to update the terms.
Ankara has received billions of dollars in return by setting up camps in the southeast, which now have more than 4 million people.
Turkey’s main opposition party vowed last month that it would “send Syrians home” if it came to power in the general elections scheduled for 2023.
Analysts have linked some dissatisfaction to Turkey’s economic instability accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.
This week, the Teyit fact-checking platform has been debunking many negative social media posts about immigrants (many of whom are Afghans).
As Taliban fighters have made great progress in Afghanistan, this issue has attracted more and more attention. Some people worry that this war-torn country will be exodus on a large scale.
Turkey is one of the main transit routes for Afghans seeking asylum in Europe.
