Türkiye: Authorities sound mobilization in response to incidents targeting refugees
Hibapress
Turkish authorities have called for action to combat violence targeting Syrian refugees in the country, particularly following incidents in the city of Kayseri (centre) on the night of Sunday to Monday, sparked by rumours and calls for violence spread on social media.
A rumor that a Syrian refugee had harassed a Turkish minor was behind the outbreak of violence that targeted Syrian refugees living in southern Kayseri and their property, forcing the authorities to deploy significant security reinforcements to control the situation and strengthen the protection of these foreigners.
These events have sparked strong condemnation from political, media and rights activists in the country, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“We cannot accept acts of vandalism and fires in the streets. We were not like this before and we will never be like this,” the head of state said.
For Mr Erdogan, who has often denounced speeches inciting violence against Syrian refugees, “discrimination and marginalisation have never had and will never have a place in Turkey”.
“We cannot progress or achieve our goals by adopting a xenophobic attitude, practicing racism or using hateful language against foreigners in our society,” he said, while an investigation was opened by the judicial authorities, who point the finger at responsibility for these events on social networks, which widely spread rumors, hateful publications and incitement against Syrian refugees on the night of Sunday to Monday.
Reacting to this situation, the Minister of the Interior, Ali Yerlikaya, reported on Tuesday the arrest following these incidents of 474 people, many of whom have criminal records, while investigations continue to identify all the individuals involved in these disturbances.
He noted that since the outbreak of the events in Kayseri, 343,000 tweets have been published on X (formerly Twitter) through 79,000 accounts, noting that 37% of these publications were spread by automatic accounts or fake profiles.
For his part, the head of the Turkish presidency’s communications department, Fahrettin Altun, indicated that the authorities are closely monitoring his recent calls which target foreigners in the country and which aim, according to him, to create tensions within society by exploiting the issue of Syrian refugees.
Mr. Altun called on Turkish citizens to be vigilant against rumors and misleading posts spread on social media, stressing that official institutions “will continue to crack down on such attempts.”
Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Turkey has opened its borders to migrants and refugees, hosting more than 3.5 million Syrians as well as thousands of other nationalities. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Turkey has been the country hosting the largest number of refugees in the world for the past eight years.
The presence of these refugees on Turkish territory has become a subject of political tensions and internal unrest, exacerbated by the economic problems that Turkey has experienced.
