Syrian refugees in Turkey are bracing for more unrest after attacks on their homes and businesses during violent nationalist protests in cities across the country.
Dozens of Syrian-owned shops have been torched or looted by Turkish mobs since Sunday, when long-running tensions between the two communities boiled over in the Anatolian city of Kayseri.
Turks brandishing sticks and knives descended on homes and businesses after a Syrian man was accused of abusing a Syrian child. Crowds later gathered in other towns and cities that host large Syrian populations, chanting “we don’t want refugees in our country”.
In Istanbul, large gangs of men on motorbikes, many wrapped in Turkish flags, circled the neighbourhoods with high refugee populations. One Syrian man was stabbed in the leg as he walked home from work in Gaziantep, a city close to the border.
Protests and gunfire also broke out across the frontier in northern Syria, where the Turkish armed forces are working alongside Syrian rebel groups to hold on to the last patch of opposition-controlled territory in Idlib and Aleppo.
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Syrians in the area burnt and tore up the Turkish flag in response to the attacks in Kayseri, while others attacked Turkish military vehicles with stones and sticks. In the centre of Azaz, a border town, gunmen with Kalashnikovs took up positions around the town square to fire on the Turkish convoy as it passed through. Some of the men attacking the Turkish soldiers appeared to be wearing the uniform of the Syrian National Army — the Turkish-backed rebel coalition.
Turkish lorry drivers at the border crossing also came under attack, with videos showing cab windows smashed and drivers being pulled from their seats. Another video showed crowds pushing towards the border and pulling down the Turkish flag from the customs point.
Turkey sent reinforcements into the area on Monday night. Ali Yerlikaya, the interior minister, said 474 people had been arrested in connection with the violence in Kayseri, which he called “provocative actions”.
Turkey hosts the biggest refugee population in the world, including about four million Syrians who have arrived since the start of the uprising against President Assad in 2011. There have been few integration policies and most Syrians live in ghettoised communities, with many lacking the paperwork needed to find legal employment or even remain in the country.
The resentment towards the Syrians has soared as Turkey’s economic situation has worsened, and politicians of all stripes have included anti-refugee policies in their manifestos.
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Meanwhile, Turkey’s military and intelligence presence in northern Syria is also a point of discontent. Ankara first sent its troops over the border in 2016 to push back Kurdish militias, and has since created a de facto buffer zone along large parts of the frontier.
In Idlib and Aleppo, Turkey also provides public services including education, phone and internet coverage and a postal service, and many areas use the Turkish lira. But that has left Syrians, already hammered by the war, vulnerable to Turkey’s inflation crisis. Many are desperate to leave and come to Turkey — but Ankara is keeping the border firmly shut.
Syrians have also been spooked by reports that Assad and President Erdogan, who broke ties in 2011, are attempting to reconcile. The two leaders are reported to be meeting in the coming days in Baghdad as part of an Iraqi-led mediation.
Any deal between the two is likely to include the return of northern Syria to Assad’s control, as well as refugee returns from Turkey to Syria. For the Syrians who escaped Assad and believed they had found sanctuary with Turkey, however, that is an unthinkable prospect. Many Syrians who have returned to their country have disappeared or been arrested by his security forces.
