Setting fire to the streets like vandals is unacceptable, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday as he condemned violent riots that broke out in central Türkiye over allegations that a Syrian national had abused a 7-year-old Syrian child.
An angry mob stormed several neighborhoods of Kayseri’s Melikgazi district early on Monday after 26-year-old I.A., identified only by his initials, was caught sexually abusing M.A., the 7-year-old daughter of his uncle, in a public restroom.
The crowd was said to be looking for the suspected abuser as they set fire to shops and stoned the homes of foreigners in the district.
Police intervened with tear gas and 14 officers and a firefighter were injured as they struggled to disperse the crowd. Sixty-seven people were detained after the attacks, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X.
Yerlikaya said the Syrian national was caught by Turkish citizens and delivered to the police. He said on X Turks who gathered in the area acted "illegally" and in a manner "that does not suit our human values", damaging houses, shops and cars belonging to Syrians. "Türkiye is a state of law and order. Our security forces continue their fight against all crimes and criminals today, as they did yesterday."
Social media platform X was awash with extremist users calling for the expulsion of Syrian refugees in Türkiye, a sentiment that has been fueled by opposition politicians since last year.
Erdoğan too cited the "poisonous rhetoric" of the opposition as one of the reasons for the violent riots in Kayseri.
“We can get nowhere by stoking xenophobia and anti-refugee hatred among the public,” Erdoğan said at an assembly of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Ankara.
Türkiye is home to at least 3.6 million Syrian refugees that fled the civil war in 2012, most of whom are under temporary protection status.
Growing far-right anti-refugee sentiments have increased the risk of violence against immigrants in Türkiye in recent years, where many refugees have been subjected to attacks in various towns across the country upon rumors they were involved in cases of rape or murders against the local population.
Opposition parties like the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP), nationalist Good Party (IP) and far-right ultra-nationalist Victory Party (ZP) have extensively campaigned around sending Syrians back home ahead of last year’s national elections, blaming Syrians for the economic crisis, housing and rent issues.
Erdoğan advocates for a political solution to the Syrian crisis and the dignified, voluntary return of Syrians.
