With hostility towards the millions of refugees in Turkey continuing to mount, a group of NGOs gathered in Istanbul on July 27 to stand in solidarity with Syrian asylum seekers.
An ultranationalist group violently disrupted the protest, with chants of “Turkey is Turkish, and so it will remain." Plainclothes policemen seized placards and detained the counter-protestors.
The presence of refugees has polarized Turkish society. Violent acts of protest took place in June, reacting to the reported verbal harassment by a Syrian boy, including attacks on stores with Arabic-language signs.
Turkey’s 3.5 million Syrian refugees receive "temporary protection," which falls short of formal refugee status. Those living in Istanbul illegally have been ordered to leave the city by August 20, or face expulsion.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed in June that a mass scale relocation of Syrian refugees from Turkey back to Syria had been initiated, with 330,000 already returned home.
