The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a controversial move today, as it was announced in Turkey that foreigners, including refugees, are banned from settling in 16 provinces of the country, while it became known that it was decided to move Syrians from areas where they are more than 25% of the population, according to a senior Turkish official in the Middle East Eye.
Tensions have risen since last summer, when a series of incidents of community violence took place in major cities such as Istanbul and Ankara, where Turkish citizens loyal to the far-right rhetoric of Turkish politicians attacked Syrian companies as well as refugees.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has spearheaded anti-Syrian rhetoric. CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, despite wanting to take a seemingly liberal political stance, has promised to send Syrians back to their country if elected president in 2023.
Turkey currently hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees and 1.7 million foreigners amid the monetary crisis.
As part of measures to boost its popularity among the vast pool of far-right and nationalist voters and to rally Erdogan’s party voters, who look frustrated, under the pretext of “reducing tensions in the country”, it decided to stop “ghettoization of neighborhoods by foreigners”.
The number of foreigners could not exceed 25% of the total population in a neighborhood. According to it, 16 provinces, including Istanbul, Bursa, Ankara, Antalya, Izmir and Hatay, where the Syrian population is particularly high, have already stopped issuing residence permits for newly arrived foreigners.
The government also stopped accepting applications for residence permits for any kind of foreigner in 800 neighborhoods in 52 provinces, including Fatih, on the European side of Istanbul, where the population of Arabs and Afghans is very high, in a visibly degraded area, which at the same time it hosts all the former Byzantine monuments.
Turkey’s immigration authority told the media last week that the Altτινndaγ district of Ankara has been used as a plot to relocate Syrians. Angry locals looted and attacked Syrian homes and businesses last year when two Syrians killed a Turkish citizen in a street fight.
“More than 4,500 Syrians have been relocated to other residential areas as 309 abandoned buildings have been demolished and 177 businesses closed,” the authority told the media.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said last weekend that a new wave of Syrian refugees was arriving at the Turkish border from Damascus. “Most Syrians come from Damascus because of the economic crisis there,” he said. “They would like to go to the West through Turkey.” Soylu said Turkey treats these Syrians differently than others, as Ankara does not classify them as refugees after they left their homes for financial reasons. “They are being transported directly to camps and will be returned,” he added.
Soilu also revealed that more than 193,000 Syrians have received Turkish citizenship by early 2022. “More than 700,000 Syrian children were born in Turkey,” he said.
Source: Capital
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