​​​​​​​"Go back to your country" ... Racist publications against Syrians in Turkey

The last documented in this field was the distribution of leaflets in Gaziantep written in a broken Arabic language, "Go back to your country. You, Syrians, are not welcomed." In addition to what happened in Hatay province when two Turkish young men beat two Syrian young men fiercely shouting at their faces: "Either you return to your country, or we will kill you."

Turkey's use of the Syrian presence politically

The Syrian doctor Mohamed Kutoub spoke to Hawar news agency in this regard saying: "In fact, the interaction with the Syrians differed greatly. In 2014, the Syrian people were greatly welcome, but many media outlets attributed everything that happens in Turkey in terms of strained relations with several countries, a decline in the exchange rate, and thus the purchasing power of the Turkish citizen, and a lot of things to the Syrian presence. On the other hand, the Turkish citizen sees their government declaring enormous expenses incurred by it as a result of the Syrian presence, and this is not denied by anyone, but it was misplaced."

Kutoub asserts that "the hate speech is exacerbating, and the Turkish citizen cannot be blamed. He is the victim of this unclear speech, just like the refugee, but the Turkish media repeats what the government says, or what the opposition parties say, and both speeches use the issue of Syrian asylum in Turkey politically."

Whoever looks at the issue in a more comprehensive manner, they are not possible to neglect the negative role of the Turkish authorities in this field by exercising in many cases the role of a spectator to the racist discourse issued by politicians, representatives and opponents, without any decisive legal procedures that can block the way to such abuses and crimes, and if these authorities intervene, then they will be through reacting and taking the position of a defender trying to push the charge for a crime that does not exist, or through a reaction to the publication of Syrian activists who monitored these attacks and promoted them on social media.

Factors for escalating racist discourse

What is the reason for the escalation of racist discourse against the Arabs, especially the Syrians who were received heroes' reception at the beginning of the crisis? Kutoub who has lived in Gaziantep for five years confirms that several factors contributed to the escalation of this racist discourse, "the first of which is an immature discourse by the Turkish government that began in 2011 with immigrants and supporters, positive discrimination for Syrians, allowing them to work without licenses and without regulation, exemption from violations, in addition to giving a temporary protection card and full opening of the borders without any verification of documents or papers, to suddenly turn into scrutiny, deportation, and rejection of requests for work and residency permits, closing bank accounts, intelligence employing for Syrians, and a media discourse that trades in Syrians, brags about spending on them, and addresses the rest of the world's governments that it held the responsible for Syrians alone. It even came to using the Syrians as a scarecrow against Europe and mercenaries in wars outside the country and that was interspersed with a religious discourse that evokes nostalgia for the days of the sultans and polarizes Islamists."

Another reason for the escalation of racist discourse in Turkey, Kutoub asserts that "Syrian institutions are newly born without experience tended to deal with governments and not with society and civil institutions that resemble them, and were forced to identify with the fluctuations of Turkish government policy to preserve their presence, except that a large part of them could not give up the culture of the one-party and the eternal leader, as they found for themselves a ruler instead of the eternal leader, and justified everything, including deporting Syrians like them, their fault that they did not obtain proofs only."

The Syrian doctor concludes by saying: "This is a serious warning, and no strict measures or media campaigns will now be able to change this racist psyche. This requires years of work from all of these parties."

Growing racism against Arabs

The hostility directed against the Arabs is based on two main axes: the first is against tourists from the Arabian Gulf who are rich and flock to the city largely to live or shop and perform hair transplantation operations, as the city's people call them a "Bedouin with Mercedes", and the behavior of some tourists of the youth who are "liberated" from the shackles of the Gulf greatly arouses ridicule among the Turks.

As for the second axis, it revolves around a group that is much poorer financially compared to the first, which are the refugees fleeing the Syrian war. According to United Nations statistics, Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees in the world, including more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees, where about half a million Syrian refugees are living in Istanbul officially, forming 3.4 percent of its population.

Racism is sown in schools

The Arabic language which has entered Turkish society and public life raises concerns that refugees will "change or pollute" Turkish culture. The Ministry of Interior recently emphasized the use of the Arabic language on only 25 percent of the signs on storefronts, as Istanbul Mayor Akram Imam Oglu adopted a racist rhetoric. During his election campaign, he made promises to deport Syrians to their country, to "safe Syria," and despite his opposition to Erdogan, his speech contributed to his victory in the Fatih region, which is the AKP's stronghold and overcrowded with Syrian refugees.

The racist situation against Arabs in Turkey is not new. According to a veteran and supporter of Erdogan, the seed of racism is being planted in schools, as textbooks teach Turkish children that Arabs let them down and abandoned them in World War I, and before the Syrian refugee crisis, hard-line nationalists in Turkey preferred using the term "native Turks," a term used to exclude the Kurds, and all non-Muslim minorities such as Armenians and Jews, but today it is used to exclude Arabs, so the prohibition of the use of the Kurdish language was prohibited in private places as well, not only in the public domain in 1991, and the Kurds who make up 20 percent of Turkey's population are still subjected to various kinds of repression in eastern Turkey and to political pressures throughout the country.

Racism affects most Arabs

Racism in Turkey is not limited to a specific nationality or group, as everyone who is not Turkish is subjected to racism, and it is not common at the popular level only, as residents may face racism by some government agencies, such as the Immigration Directorate or police departments.

An Egyptian young man who spoke the condition of secrecy for fear of deportation said that "he was subjected to a racist attitude and intransigence on the part of the officer of a Turkish department in Koçek  Çekmeçe neighborhood in Istanbul when he went there to make a report of losing a passport."  He added that the officer's tune changed when he realized that the speaker is an Arab, and that they are not specialized in making passports records for non-Turks.

When the young man replied to him that what he is asking for is his legal right, whether he is Arab or otherwise, the officer said: "I can serve the rest of the nationalities, but I do not want to deal with Arabs, and I am not honored to enter any Arab country." After an argument with the department officer, the young Egyptian went to another section where he was able to extract the report of the loss of a passport before he went to the Egyptian Consulate in Istanbul to obtain a new passport.

The number of Arabs in general in Turkey reaches 5 million residents, the number of Egyptians ranges between 10 to 15 thousand, most of them are concentrated in Istanbul, while the number of Syrians in Istanbul is about 559 thousand people, according to a statement by the Turkish General Directorate of Lifelong Learning published in 2018, and this number may increase if the non-registered are added to it.

D.H

ANHA