Syrian homes, businesses destroyed in Turkish capital amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment
At least 76 people have been detained in connection with the rampage.
Millions of Syrians who found shelter in Turkey from the violence that has raged in their country since the start of the civil war there in 2011 are now facing growing hostility from their Turkish hosts amid a sharp economic downturn exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The brewing resentment toward an estimated 3.7 million Syrian refugees turned violent in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Wednesday night as hundreds of locals chanting slurs swarmed to the working-class suburb of Altindag and embarked on a vandalism spree, overturning cars, shattering windows and looting shops said to be owned by Syrians.
At least 76 people were detained in connection with the rampage, which was triggered by the death of an 18-year old Turkish man, Emirhan Yalcin. The teen was stabbed in a brawl between Syrian refugees in Altindag, a stronghold of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Turkey has long been lauded for hosting so many Syrians, making it the largest refugee-hosting country in the world. Refugees account for 5% of its population of roughly 83 million.
Turkish patience is beginning to run thin amid rising joblessness, spiraling inflation and a pervading sense that the country is being invaded, foremost by Syrians, even as Turkish forces occupy big chunks of Syria and are accused of being invaders by the Syrian regime. “The educated ones go to Europe and we are left with the detritus — savages who spread their legs wide, pick their noses and talk loudly with an army of children on public transport. We have become a minority in our own land,” complained Serap Ozturk, a pro-secular housewife from Istanbul’s Goztepe district.
