The Turkish authorities have begun to remove Arabic shop signs across the country in a bid to soothe popular resentment over the Syrian refugees, which -- stoked by Turkey’s economic crisis -- has raised the political costs for the government.

Arabic shopfronts have mushroomed across Turkey since the refugee influx began in 2011, adding a distinct feature to the urban landscape in a country where Arabic script has political connotations beyond the problem of refugees. The replacement of Arabic script with the Latin one in 1928 was one of the sweeping reforms of modern Turkey’s secularist founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, to transform a nation rising from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. 

According to Interior Ministry data, more than 3.6 million Syrians were under “temporary protection” in Turkey as of June. The refugee population totals more than 4 million when people from other countries such as Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan are included. Many have started small businesses in Turkey, catering mostly to fellow refugees. For many locals, Arabic signs have become an omnipresent reminder of the multifaceted refugee problem, with some even fretting that Turkey is “being lost” or “Arabized.” 

Syrians have set up more than 15,000 companies in Turkey thus far, according to figures cited by Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan in response to a recent parliamentary question by Sezgin Tanrikulu, a member of the main opposition Republican People's Party. The Syrian businesses are concentrated mostly in Istanbul, nearby Bursa, the Mediterranean province of Mersin and the border provinces of Hatay and Gaziantep.