Syrian Influx Unnerves Turks in Border Towns
While the Syrian regime looks increasingly precarious, many Turks worry about the burgeoning refugee camps and wish that the Turkish government would move them into a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border. On site at the camps, Tulin Daloglu shares refugee stories and the perspectives of uneasy Turks.
HATAY, Turkey — While the Assad regime in Syria looks increasingly precarious, many Turks, especially those who live near the border with Syria, are less than enthusiastic about Turkey’s unequivocal support for the Syrian opposition.
Hatay province’s Alevi population, whose religious faith is similar but not identical to that of Syria’s minority Alawites, fears that Syrian Alawites’ lives will be at risk once President Bashar al-Assad falls and that in the undetermined amount of time it takes for him to go, radicals will benefit most from the chaotic environment.
Yildiz Garbi, a long-time criminal lawyer in Hatay, told Al-Monitor that the chatter in the border town is that Sunni Syrians believe “killing seven Alevis [or Alawites] will secure them a place in heaven.”
Many local residents also worry about the nature of those filling the burgeoning refugee camps and wish that the Turkish government would move them into a buffer zone on the other side of the border.
