Racist rhetoric and unfair decisions tighten the noose around Syrian refugees in Turkey

Yamin Al Khaled – Turkey
Translated by: Hejar Abo

Introduction
Hate speeches were issued by Turkish government officials against Syrian refugees in recent years, until the issue of branding and incitement against Syrians became clear, by a wide Turkish public opinion.

On the official side, arbitrary decisions were also issued by the Turkish government against the Syrians, which appeared more with the decline in the economic reality in Turkey, as the Turks accuse the government of being the cause of the high cost of living and the poor economic reality in the country, and as a popular reaction to the government, the Syrians are held accountable on the basis that the government supports them, while the Turkish government does not recognize the funds allocated by the United Nations to support the Syrians in Turkey. The restrictions of the Turkish government, in addition to the Turkish popular anger, have become a racist tone and hate speech towards the Syrians, which is represented in many government decisions and popular positions.

Several Turkish cities and states have witnessed an escalation by Turks against the Syrians, and a wide Turkish public opinion considers that the Syrians have become a threat to them, and that they are contributing to the weakening of the Turkish economy, and recently witnessed many cases of expulsion of Syrians, and their deportation to Syria by the authorities, despite the legal presence between the two.

Syrians in dismantling of the Turkish policy
With the start of the movement in Syria in March 2011, and with the intensification of war and conflict, cases of displacement began towards the border countries with Syria. Turkey had the largest share, receiving refugees on the one hand, and receiving the file of the Syrian opposition in Turkey on the other hand, and the number of refugees reached hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Until the speech became at first from Turkey, that it was a welcome for the Syrian brothers, until the Turkish leadership described the presence of the Syrians as “immigrants” and the Turks as “supporters.”

In return for pumping towards the reception of the Syrians, with a humane nature, Turkey became a sponsor of the presence of the Syrian opposition, and gave it space on its land, through the Justice and Development Party’s alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood (Syria). The cooperation led to the dominance of the Turky on the Syrian Opposition dicision, at the same time the Turkish opposition considered that the Justice and Development Party seeks to exploit the Syrian refugees, and this formed a new political conflict, promoted by the Syrians loyal to Turkey that the opposition is working against the presence of the Syrians, while the government supports this presence, until the facts of pressure on the Syrians by Turkey and its government emerged. In many situations.

The racist and extremist speeches of Turkish officials towards the Syrians
Recently, the speeches and statements of Turkish officials constituted a negative reaction by Turkish citizens towards the Syrian refugees. The scene of the lack of acceptance of the presence of the Syrians among Turkish society seemed clear, and the formation of a negative idea about the Syrians and their feeling of inferiority more clearly, so that the Turks viewed the Syrians as a burden. The cries of Turkish public opinion and Turkish political forces began that the Syrians should return to their country. They have become an obstacle to the growth of the Turkish economy, while the position of the Turkish public opinion was that the Turkish government bears heavy burdens to cover their needs.

The change in Erdogan’s speech is due to the pressures experienced by his ruling party in Turkey, as well as international pressures, and the political consensus that took place with Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime, as if it was no longer a beneficiary of the Syrian opposition’s card. Turkey at the expense of the Syrians.

The beginning of the statements of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which he spoke several times about the same issue, to the extent that the words of this famous sentence became the focus of ridicule and comment among Syrian refugees in Turkey, which is his saying that “Turkey hosts four million Syrian refugees,” and by repeating this sentence in a number of letters recently, the Turkish government wanted to deliver messages to the European Union countries, of the need to intensify financial support for Turkey, to meet the needs of the Syrian refugees and secure their livelihood.

Another responsible Turkish figure known for his hostile statements is Tango Ozcan, the mayor of the Turkish city of Bolu, who was known for his racist statements and stances towards the Syrians. He demanded several times, most recently on July 26, 2021, to impose large living costs on Syrian refugees, and demanded that the prices of the services provided to Syrians, such as the Internet, electricity and drinking water, are at prices higher than those taken from Turkish citizens, and even specified that the price should be multiplied by 10 times. He said in one of his statements that “Syrians have been staying for a long time, so let them go. How long will Turkey bear them?” He said in a another statement, “They did not go when we cut aid, and they did not go when we stopped issuing work permits, so we have now decided to take new measures,” referring to the Syrian refugees, and these statements were considered by the Syrian refugees as incitement against them and racist and hate speech towards them.

As a reaction to Ozcan’s repeated speeches, which angered the Syrians in Turkey, about 22 Syrian lawyers and activists, along with Turks, filed on February 2, a lawsuit against him in the Turkish “Çağlayan” court, because of his extremist and hostile racist statements against the Syrian refugees and his quest to expel them from the city and restrict them.

As for the leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party, “Kamal Kılıçdaroğlu,” he has also pledged several times to return the Syrians to their country within a period of time not exceeding two years, if he is able to reach the seat of government in the future.

He said in one of his statements on September 29, 2021, “The Syrians are our relatives and they will be happy in the land in which they were born, so we will return them to their country in peace,” noting that “there are 3 million and 600,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey, according to official government statistics.

Some return the position of the Turkish opposition to a political struggle whose direct goal is against the Turkish government, which appears to be taking care of the Syrians, and not against the Syrians directly, while supporters of the Turkish government see that the position of the Turkish opposition stems from their position on the Turkish government, and the absence of hostility towards the Syrian regime.

The Syrian refugee is a victim of the mood of Turkish public opinion
Regarding the radical change in the way the Turks deal with Syrian refugees, Samar Al-Ahmad (a pseudonym), a 48-year-old Syrian female refugee from Khan Sheikhoun area in the southern countryside of Idlib, and who lives in a village near the city of Antakya in southern Turkey, told Aso News Network that during the last few years, the Syrian refugee has become subject to beatings and humiliation, and a victim of the mood swings of the Turkish citizen. For every incident that occurs in Turkey, the Syrians bear the consequences, and they do not differentiate between those who are related to the incident and those who have nothing to do with it. We are scared on our children to go out at night for being exposed to detention or quarrel With the Turks without any reason whatsoever.

Al-Ahmad narrates a close story that happened with one of her children at the beginning of this year. She says, “A quarrel occurred between the mayor of the village and a Syrian person because he was accused of stealing a sum of money from a small vegetable store. One of my children was beaten for no reason by Turkish youths, who were standing on the roads and sometimes throwing stones at Syrian houses.”

She added that the matter did not stop there only, but the Turkish mayor of the village demanded that the Syrians, the number about 50 families, to leave. After days of discussions, “it was agreed that we would not be expelled and here was the suffering, so our children avoided talking with the Turks and only went out for necessity.”

Samar expresses her regret for the situation with the Syrians in Turkey, and the huge difference in the treatment of the Turks with them between the beginning of the war in Syria and the present time, and instructs the reason for that change, to accuse the Syrians of taking the role of the Turks and their right to work and humanitarian aid and others, then she returns and hopes that this will end the tragedy and the Syrians return to their country.

Syrian workers are victims of racism
Racism has had negative effects on Syrian workers as well. Safouk al-Hassan, a young man from the northern Hama countryside, told Aso News Network that he has been working for several years in the Turkish city of Izmir in factories for the export of vegetables. During the last three years, he noticed a significant change in the treatment of Syrians by the Turks, Its severity increases with every incident that occurs in Turkey or a speech by one of the officials, especially “Erdogan.” The Syrian worker is completely deprived of his rights and does not dare to demand them.

Al-Hassan added that he personally witnessed many cases of aggression by the Turks against Syrians in several laboratories that moved between them. When any dispute appears between a Syrian and a Turk, the Turks attack all the Syrian workers and they are subjected to beating, while the Syrian worker can’t defend himself, as he cannot leave work because he will be subjected to the robbery of his salary, as there are no official contracts for work, so he cannot go to the judiciary to claim his rights.

There is no official law that protects the Syrians because Turkey considers them guests and not refugees. Therefore, in the event of any violation of the rights of the Syrians, the Turkish police do not interfere and if they do, the law becomes with the Turks. Turkish public opinion leaders loyal to the government have often indicated that the Syrians should respect the Turkish people!

Al-Hassan says, “We are tired of the negative and inferior view of us as young Syrian refugees in Turkey. This view haunts us at work, in the street, and in government institutions. When we deal with Turks in shops, and even with neighbors and neighborhood residents, we do not know when this suffering will end and how long we will remain under The mercy of the Turks and their domination under the pretext of harboring refugees.”

Arbitrary decisions against Syrian refugees in recent months
In the context of its continued restrictions on Syrian refugees in its lands, who earn through their efforts and work and the support provided to them by the European countries, many decisions and measures were issued against Syrian refugees during the recent period by the Turkish authorities, which greatly affected the lives of Syrians and increased their suffering. The latest of which is what was known as the “mitigation plan” decision. The decision stipulates that foreigners in Turkey, including the Syrian refugees who constitute the majority, are prevented from registration within 16 Turkish states and about 800 neighborhoods in other states, namely Ankara, Antalya, Aydin, Bursa, Çanakkale, Duzce, Edirne, Hatay, Istanbul, Izmir, Kırklareli, Kocaeli, Mugla, Sakarya, Tekirdag and Yalova

The decision states that if the percentage of foreigners in one of these states reaches 25 percent, then the registration in it will be stopped, and this plan aims to reduce the number of foreigners, especially Syrians, in the Turkish states.

Earlier, the Turkish authorities forcibly deported many Syrians from its lands under various pretexts. On January 31 of this year, about 150 young Syrians were deported, most of whom had university degrees, workers and employees in Turkey holding work permits and temporary protection cards (Kumlik). They were deported through the Bab al-Salama crossing, adjacent to the areas under the control of the pro-Turkish National Army factions, after they were detained in the Tuzla Center in Istanbul for 10 days. Deportation on the pretext that they do not have a travel permit to Istanbul.

Turkey had previously arbitrarily deported dozens of Syrians to Syria during the months of October and November of last year, due to what it called provocations from them for their participation in the “banana trend” that began on October 17, after a Turkish citizen appeared on a television program complaining about the lack of the ability of the Turks to buy bananas, while he indicated that the Syrians buy them in large quantities, as he described, to which a Syrian girl responded by saying that, “she would not have chosen to seek refuge outside her country,” which sparked a wave of sympathy with her and mockery of the Turkish citizen, and videos began to spread across Social media is meant to ridicule the Turks and buy and eat bananas. The Turkish authorities sought to please the Turkish people through decisions to ban the circulation of these videos, punish those who publish them, and arrest a group of Syrians living in Turkey who promoted the banana trend.

On September 20, 2021, the Turkish authorities issued a decision against Syrian patients receiving treatment in Turkish hospitals free of charge with the support of the European Union countries. Treatment has been entirely at the patients’ expense, while the “Bab al-Hawa” border crossing stopped granting entry permits to Syrian patients (medical referrals), regardless of their health conditions, which contributed to the worsening conditions of patients in Turkey and inside Syria as a result of this decision.

The 13-year-old child, Yassir Haj Ragheb, from Al-Ghab Plain area in the western countryside of Hama, suffers from brain atrophy and complete paralysis, and he needs treatment in Turkey, according to what doctors confirmed to his father. Another one who needs to move to Turkish hospitals to receive treatment as soon as possible, “but the decision came to prevent medical referrals and he was refused from entry.”

He explained that despite the decision, there are those who enter through “Bab al-Hawa” after they paid bribes to the Turkish medical examination team at the door, who receive bribes estimated at about 2,000 US dollars from patients to accept their entry to Turkey, and this decision is considered a new means of pressure by the Turkish authorities on the Syrians in Turkey, as many patients in Turkish hospitals stopped receiving treatment because they had to pay for it.

In the North of Syria, there are very difficult cases of disease, such as cancer patients, heart diseases and paralysis, who must enter Turkey to receive treatment, and we are shocked by this change in the Turkish government and people’s dealings with the Syrians and their rejection of the presence of more Syrians inside Turkish territory, according to the description of Yassir’s father.

With regard to education, a decision was issued by the Turkish authorities on July 1, 2021, stipulating the suspension of work contracts for about 13,000 Syrian teachers and schools in all Turkish schools, noting that the United Nations Children’s Fund “UNICEF” sponsors the financing of the salaries of Syrian teachers within an official agreement between the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Turkish authorities, however, teachers receive a salary estimated at only two thousand Turkish liras, which is less than half of the salaries of Turkish teachers, given that all Syrian teachers in Turkey work as “volunteers” based on the terms of the agreement between Turkey and UNICEF.

“Qasim al-Dali,” a young man from Homs and resides in the Turkish city of Reyhanli since 2014, and worked as a teacher for primary school students before the decision to dismiss and stop work affected him. He said that Syrian teachers were working without any rights compared to Turkish teachers, so when any problem occurred in the school, there was no The Syrian teacher can take his right as he is not an official employee, and the salary is very low and equal to the wages of an ordinary worker of the Turks.

Pointing out that the teachers considered the decision to dismiss an arbitrary, racist and unjustified decision, and Turkey does not bear to pay even one dollar to the teachers. Like other Syrian refugees, he suffers from covering house rent expenses, living costs, and electricity, internet and water subscriptions.

After a while of the decision to dismiss thousands of teachers, the Turkish government claimed that it would return them to work in teaching, but in fact, those who returned to work do not exceed dozens. They were forced to pay bribes to Turkish officials to return them to work, and we do not know how long this restriction will cover the Syrian teachers.

The suffering of Syrian refugees continues inside Turkish territory, whose government exploits their presence to earn millions of dollars from supporting countries and international organizations, while the worst forms of racism and harassment are practiced against Syrian refugees in order to push them to return to their country, and hateful and racist discourses continue to be issued from time to time from officials in The Turkish government issues unjust decisions that restrict refugees and worsen their living conditions, despite their fleeing from the brunt war.