More than 470 people have been taken into custody after crowds
attacked Syrian shops and cars in central Turkey [photo credit:
@ScharoMaroof]
Türkiye is in the throes of an economic crisis – much of it induced
by Erdoğan’s economic policies - with low wages and inflation exceeding
75 percent so Syrian refugees are an easy scapegoat for many Turks’
financial distress and one that deflects attention away from the
government’s failings on the economic front.
In northern Syria, where Türkiye exerts control, Syrians protested
and threw rocks at Turkish soldiers in solidarity with the treatment of
their compatriots across the border. Some of the protests were met with
gunfire which led to the deaths of at least seven Syrians—only leading
to further divisions between Turks and Syrians.
Within this fallout, Turkish opposition parties called
for mass deportations. In response to opposition pressure, President
Erdoğan appears to be seeking the help of the Syrian government to
address the issue. He announced
at a NATO summit on July 11 that he had requested to meet with his
Syrian counterpart. This is the latest in recent efforts to bridge a
rapprochement between the two governments, after Erdoğan had originally
backed anti-Assad forces in the early days of the Syrian revolution. In
December 2022, Turkish and Syrian defence ministers participated in talks in Russia, the first ministerial level meeting between the rivals since 2011.
These earlier talks never gained momentum, but a Turkish newspaper published
a roadmap at the end of July that could form the basis of a bilateral
Memorandum of Understanding. This would include Türkiye banning Syrian
opposition activities, extraditing certain wanted criminals, evacuating
troops from northern Syria and handing over Syrian opposition border
crossings. In exchange, Syria would take back two million Syrian
refugees from Türkiye, allow for the political participation of some
Syrian opposition and work to eliminate Kurdish militants connected with
the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK), the latter designated as a terrorist organisation by Ankara.
All of this has pushed Syrians in Türkiye into an even more
precarious position. Some Syrians have started to sell off their assets
and started to prepare to emigrate from the country, with onward options
to the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, or Europe. However, the
corresponding announcement by Italy that it will soon send
an ambassador to Syria, the first G7 country to relaunch its diplomatic
mission in over a decade, does not bode well for Syrian refugees trying
to get into the European Union.
For those Syrians who refuse
to return to Syria out of safety concerns, the recent political and
social dynamics playing out in Türkiye are narrowing their options fast
while making them lose any thoughts of attempting to integrate into
Turkish society over the long-term.
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