tensions are rising
Turkey, home to some 4 million Syrian refugees, opened its borders in 2011 to people fleeing the civil war raging there. Many are concentrated in the south of the country, close to the Syrian border. In the Turkish city of Gaziantep, worst affected by the earthquake, live about half a million Syrians, a quarter of the population.
Resentment towards the Syrian people is nothing new, but the earthquake has raised tensions.
Turkey has spent more than $40 billion since 2011 to accommodate refugees at a time of acute economic hardship in the country. Some Turks view Syrians as cheap labor to capture jobs and access services, and the issue of Syrian refugees was a major topic in this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
“Syrians walk around with their empty bags and fill them from shops. There was a lot of looting here,” said Ahmet, a dentist who used to have his surgery.
Some offers of aid on social media have been openly anti-Syrian.
“Earthquake survivors are welcome to live in my Ankara home for a year, on the condition that they are not Syrian,” said a tweet with a picture of a wooden villa. Other offers of aid or temporary housing have also set the same status.
Mustafa Ali, a former Syrian opposition politician, is running a temporary shelter in Mersin for about 250 Syrians and says he agreed with local authorities to keep them separate from shelters for displaced Turks.
“There is a difference in culture, in a way of life, in language, and this separation can create a lot of problems,” he said.
“At first a lot of shelters didn’t ask people if they were Turkish or foreign. But the next day, when there was some trouble and some racist remarks, we thought maybe some problems could come up without them and us both can work.” ,
Among those in Ali’s shelter was 35-year-old Bilal al-Sheikh, who fled the city of Iskenderun with his three children after the roof of his house collapsed.
“We were in a collective shelter and then stayed with some people for a day or two and now we are here…the kids were sleeping at night and they came in and said you have to go to a different shelter…it It’s been a week since we’ve been suffering like this.”
Many Syrians initially regarded Turkey as a stepping stone to a new life in Europe, but found themselves trapped after Turkey signed a deal with the European Union to stem the flow of migrants to Europe. Went.