Turkey’s Syria policy in a nutshell

What’s the summary of Turkey’s Syria policy? I’ll give you a short answer: It’s the Syrian beggars put on the Kadikoy ferry [in Istanbul]. If you happen to be confused, I’m referring to the tragicomic story in the newspapers yesterday [July 8].

Though it looks like a funny and bizarre story of banishment at first glance, unfortunately it’s not. What we have here is a great human tragedy. And for the Fatih and Kadikoy municipalities, which scrambled desperately to resolve a problem, it’s a big shame. But most importantly, it’s the bankruptcy of Turkey’s Syria policy!

While reading the report, your emotions move between laughing and crying. But ultimately, if you have a bit of conscience, you end up feeling ashamed in the name of humanity.

So, what happened? A group of Syrians living in Istanbul were subjected to one of the world’s most bizarre deportation procedures for beggary. According to the reports, the Fatih municipal police issued repeated warnings to the Syrian beggars whom it used to round up in Eminonu, but to no avail. And that was only natural since those people, forced to flee their countries, have no jobs, no roofs over their heads and no food to eat.

According to official figures, more than one million Syrians live in Turkey today, either in refugee camps or in the streets and the parks. Despite all its efforts, Turkey has been able to provide shelter in refugee camps only to half of the Syrians who fled to our country. So, what about the rest? They have been living in the streets — literally — for quite some time. Some, like those in Eminonu, are begging, others are trying to earn their living despite all the hardship.

Other than the official refugee camps, makeshift camps have sprung up in the streets and parks of many Istanbul neighborhoods. The locals are unhappy — some out of prejudice, some out of uneasiness and others for encountering social and criminal problems. The municipal police are helpless, the municipal administrations lack the adequate means and the central government fails to produce big solutions to match its big talk. As a result, each district’s local administration comes up with its own solution as much as its scarce resources allow.

And some, like the Fatih and Kadikoy municipal police, come up with bizarre inventions. The Fatih municipal police reasoned, “If we can’t get rid of the Syrian beggars, why don’t we put them on the ferry to Kadikoy and let them do their begging on the other shore [of the Bosporus].” And they did put the beggars on the ferry, free of charge. What could the poor Syrians have done? They got off in Kadikoy and went on begging there. But this time, the Kadikoy folk began to complain to their municipality. The Kadikoy municipal police found out that the beggars came from the other side of the city, rounded them up immediately and sent them back to Eminonu. But their counterparts there were on alert. They stopped the Syrians and put them on the next ferry back to Kadikoy. No kidding, the Syrian beggars traveled back and forth between Istanbul’s European and Asian sides, making four or five runs on the Sirkeci-Kadikoy ferry that day.

When the incident hit the media, the Fatih and Kadikoy municipalities both scrambled to wash their hands of it, claiming they had nothing to do with what happened.

Yet, the tragicomic state of Turkey’s Syria policy is out there, as plain as day. The only problem is that neither the Syrians driven from their country nor [Turks] can afford to laugh at it. All that haranguing of “not even a bird flying without our knowledge in the region,” of “Syria falling in a couple of months” and us “holding soon Friday prayers at the Great Mosque of Damascus” is now a memory with an acrid taste.

Source: al-monitor

M. Wassouf