Turkey detains hundreds after violence erupts against Syrians

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Turkey has detained hundreds of people after two nights of violent protests targeting the country’s large Syrian population. 

Around 475 people were detained after “provocative actions were carried out against Syrians last night in cities across our country”, Turkish interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday.

The violence began on Sunday in central Kayseri province after a Syrian national was accused of sexually harassing a child. Kayseri’s chief public prosecutor opened a formal investigation into the suspect, described only by the initials “IA”, who was arrested.

Anti-Syrian violence spread to other provinces including Hatay and Gaziantep, along the southern border with Syria, on Monday evening. Local media showed scenes of buildings and cars set ablaze by large mobs.

Immigration has become one of Turkey’s most divisive issues, with economic problems such as high inflation increasing tensions. According to official statistics, Turkey is home to 3.1mn refugees who fled Syria during its more than decade-long civil war.

The protests come at a time when Ankara has said it is open to normalising relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that were damaged when Turkey backed rebel groups in its southern neighbour.

Counter-protests erupted in north-west Syria, parts of which are under Turkish control, on Monday. Several people were killed in armed clashes between protesters and Turkish soldiers, according to local reports and Syrian civil society groups. The Financial Times could not independently verify the number of people killed in the unrest. 

Hundreds of protesters tried to lower Turkish flags across cities in Syria’s north-west, videos on social media showed, while border crossings and Turkish vehicles crossing into Syria were also targeted. The office of the Turkish governor in Afrin was attacked, according to local media. Internet outages were reported in large pockets of the Turkish-controlled north-west.

Protests were also reported in rebel-held Idlib, also in north-west Syria but outside of Ankara’s control.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed, without evidence, that opposition parties and a Kurdish separatist group that has fought a decades-long insurgency had incited the violence: “We will not succumb to hate speech, fascism and provocations,” he said on Tuesday evening, adding that his country “know(s) how to break the hands that reach for the oppressed who take refuge [in Turkey].”

Authorities clamped down on the spread of information about the unrest in Kayseri. A court in the city imposed reporting restrictions both on the investigation into the suspect in the child abuse case and the broader protests, state media reported.

Government censors have also restricted access to popular social media platforms in Kayseri, according to independent internet observatory NetBlocks.

Erdoğan has faced mounting pressure from opposition politicians over the deal he struck with the EU in 2016 to house Syrian refugees heading for Europe in exchange for €6bn. The bloc topped up the programme with an additional €3bn in 2021.

The Turkish leader signalled last week that he would be amenable to a rapprochement with Assad, saying the neighbours had “no reason” not to normalise relations. The two leaders fell out following the outbreak in 2011 of the Syrian civil war, with Turkey backing rebel groups and taking control of north-western regions in an attempt to stop the conflict breaching its borders.

With Iran and Russia’s backing, Assad later regained control of about two-thirds of the country.

Following the collapse of Russian-led talks to mend Syria-Turkey ties in 2022, during which anti-Turkey protests also erupted in rebel-held areas of north-west Syria, Iraq has been mediating between Ankara and Damascus for direct talks to resume.