Syrians who are not registered in Istanbul must leave by September 24, the government has announced, as Turkey’s refugee population faces rising discontent after becoming a lightning rod for criticism during the country’s May elections.
The announcement states that Syrians with temporary protection who do not have registration papers for the city must leave, and they can apply to get a road permit to return to the provinces they are registered in.
There is an exemption for refugees who are registered in provinces that were affected by the February earthquakes in southeastern Turkey that killed more than 50,000 people.
Hürriyet Daily News reported that those who do not leave Istanbul will be returned to their registered provinces by law enforcement officers. Additionally, government regulation states individuals will have to leave the country if they repeatedly do not report their whereabouts without “valid reasons.”
Many Syrians have reported being forcibly deported to Syria, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promised to send 1 million Syrians back to their country during the presidential and parliamentary elections in May of this year, which he and his party won.
Omar Kadkoy, an Ankara-based analyst with the Turkish think tank TEPAV, told The Media Line that a lack of documentation is not a legal justification for sending a Syrian back to Syria.
“At the end of the day, Syria remains an unsafe country of origin,” he said.
Syrian refugees in Turkey
The UN Refugee Agency states that there are 3.6 million Syrians with temporary protection in Turkey, and Turkish government statistics state that there are more than 530,000 Syrians with protection status living in Istanbul, more than any other province in the country.
However, it is believed that many others are living undocumented in Turkey.
Last year, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey unlawfully deported a Syrian back to Syria after forcing him to sign a document stating he was voluntarily returning.
Discontent with Turkey’s refugee population, and especially Syrians, became a focus during the May elections, with the secularist opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu promising to send all refugees back to their countries.
His party, the Republican People’s Party, currently holds the mayorship of Istanbul, which the party won in the 2019 local elections.
Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party will have a chance to win back Istanbul next year, with the Turkish president already voicing his desire for victory in the country’s largest city and economic engine.
Kadkoy said those upcoming elections are helping fuel the renewed pressure on Syrians, which the opposition has taken a harder line on.
“Erdoğan and his government are riding the wave that the opposition generated,” Kadkoy said.
Emma Walker-Silverman, a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre and a former Fulbright fellow in Turkey, told The Media Line that anti-refugee sentiment is normally a divisive topic, with those on the left usually more supportive of refugees.
“In Turkey, you don’t really have that split,” said Walker-Silverman, adding that negative feelings against refugees are found across the political spectrum.
She stated that refugees became a scapegoat for the opposition’s frustration over losing the election and many of the underlying factors that contributed to anger towards refugees have not changed since the election.
Those who opposed the government criticized Syrians for supporting Erdoğan, and Kılıçdaroğlu accused the Turkish president of giving Syrians citizenship so they would vote for him, although the number of refugees who obtained Turkish citizenship could not have swayed the election.
Analysts say that refugees have also become scapegoats for Turkey’s economic crisis, believing Syrians are using up the state’s resources and funds at a time when many locals are struggling to support themselves.
Last month, Turkey’s central bank forecasted that inflation would be 58% by the end of the year, although economists say the inflation rate is much higher than what is officially reported.
Walker-Silverman said Erdoğan is being motivated by the desire to gain popular support, hoping that showing concrete steps in dealing with refugees will play well with the electorate.
“It’s the appearance that the government is doing something … that they are in control of the situation and they are responding,” she said.