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Yes, Istanbul is very much a plague on both your houses situation, where, from the point of view of a Syrian refugee, the AKP's defeat in Istanbul must seem the worst of two bad options. Here's more on that from the Syrian Observer: https://syrianobserver.com/EN/news/51300/turkey-after-the-oppositions-victory-syrians-out-of-here.html The hashtag #SuriyelilerDefoluyor (Syrians out of here) became one of the most circulated hashtags in Turkey following the victory of opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu for Istanbul mayor. Turkish sites in Arabic said that supporters of the Turkish opposition attacked Syrian refugees on Twitter, calling for them to be expelled a few hours after Imamoglu’s victory, according to preliminary results. Thousands of Turkish Twitter users used the hashtag, celebrating the victory as if it was a victory over Syrians and the policies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The tweets by the Turkish opposition included images they claimed were of Syrians on Turkish beaches, expressing resentment at their ability to relax while Turkish citizens can find no time to relax. They also included videos of instances of harassment attributed to Syrians and condemned their presence on Turkish territory at a time when Turkish citizens were fighting in Syria instead of them. Turkish political analyst Mehmet Canbekli wrote on Twitter: “With the first victory by the Republican People’s Party in Istanbul, a racist hashtag against Syrians in Turkey was issued: #SuriyelilerDefoluyor.” He added that this meant, “Syrians out of here. May God help our Syrian brothers and sisters from this abhorrent racism.” It appears that Imamoglu’s victory has motivated thousands of supporters of his party to attack Syrian refugees, with some of them tweeting that the next step will be to expel them, suggesting they had successfully achieved the first step, which was “removing the AKP from Istanbul.” .................... Oddly, though, before Imamoglu’s current turn to racist speech as shown in the article John sent, he was projecting an image much, much better than the openly chauvinistic CHP Kemalist leadership: " Refugee affairs have always been centrally controlled from Ankara by the Migration Directorate, and the AKP during its 15-year grip on power in Istanbul has acquiesced to that arrangement. Imamoglu, however, is threatening to shake things up by breaking with that approach and with CHP orthodoxy and introducing new approaches toward the city's Syrian population, including establishing a municipal institution able to act quickly to address local tensions and issues in districts with large numbers of Syrians, and greater integration with the international humanitarian response, which has focused disproportionately on Syrians living in state-run camps, instead of the 96% of Syrians who live in Turkey’s urban centers" https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/06/turkey-syrians-vote-istanbul-election.html?fbclid=IwAR2HjCNz9pD7bRLE8asBIy7y4G_vHoqlBs_uwujpqtr1pkZFj4YkLAuFd9E The CHP leadership has been trying to out-MHP the MHP for years on the question of Syrian refugees, and is allied to the MHP-split group the "Good Party", which is as racist as the party it split from: "Before Imamoglu won the Istanbul election, CHP mayors in several Turkish municipalities publicly used anti-Syrian rhetoric. "The mayor of the town of Kemalpasa in western Turkey, Ridvan Karakayli, said on TV, "We will get rid of Syrians. There is peace in Syria, so what are they doing here? There are shops with signboards with the Syrian language [a reference to Arabic] near our party [building]. I will remove them. They will be taken away from here." CHP chairman Kemal Kilicardoglu alleged in 2017 that Syrians had become "first-class citizens" and Turks "second-class", saying there would be "an account for this". https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/6/25/racist-anti-syrian-hashtags-spread-following-turkish-oppositions-istanbul-victory However, things are not straightforward. While the AKP has long been seen as the party most friendly to Syrian refugees (Turkey's 3.7 million refugees is the largest refugees population in the world), since its sharp right turn and alliance with the MHP - formerly its sharp critic - since 2016, the AKP has increasingly played the same racist card as the CHP and MHP: "During the election campaign, AKP candidate Yildrim, for example, said, "Istanbul residents should know that Syrians are not here to stay. And we will not allow for them to engage in illegal activities while here. Zero tolerance. We'll grab them by the ear and throw them out". https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/6/25/racist-anti-syrian-hashtags-spread-following-turkish-oppositions-istanbul-victory Further, the Syrian border has now been blocked for some time. Over 400 Syrians fleeing Assad's slaughterhouse have been killed trying to cross the border into Turkey in recent years: https://aljumhuriya.net/en/content/syrian-turkish-border-closed-open-door?fbclid=IwAR1DinopYXUSaMaXf26B1Rs5jmlO6eJk3sCq0Zl3KMpHsiPr3sgK-_jnz4k On Wed, Jul 3, 2019 at 9:42 PM John Reimann via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > > I suspect that many on the left welcomed the defeat of Erdogan's party in > the recent mayoral election in Istanbul. However, all that glitters is not > (necessarily) gold. Over this last weekend there were riots against Syria > refugees in Istanbul. According to this article, the new mayor at least > seems to sympathize with the rioters, and it's possible that his party > helped organize it. See: > > https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turks-clash-syrians-dangerous-spark-lit-istanbul?fbclid=IwAR1jC_ldfFvsXVltFS06X6XufjYe9YGMq2jAH3EfM7pH1TlyWfetHGR3UEw > > John Reimann > > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
