Future unknown but Syrians in Turkey ‘relieved’ after Erdogan win
Al JazeeraGaziantep, Turkey — Hatim al-Abdullah, a dual Syrian-Turkish citizen, voted for the first time in Turkey’s elections in May, which returned longtime leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a five-year presidential term. The xenophobic rhetoric heard first in the aftermath of the earthquakes, then during the election campaigns, made Syrians feel like their time in Turkey would soon come to a close, and left them more afraid, according to Khaled al-Dimashqi, a 32-year-old humanitarian worker with temporary protection in Gaziantep. “I was living under great psychological pressure due to the increase in hate speech and the rise of racism against Syrians,” al-Dimashqi said in Sakulta, a popular coffee shop in Gaziantep where Syrians often meet. On the campaign trail, Erdogan promised that one million Syrians would be “voluntarily returned” to their country, as he plans on normalising relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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