The young men carrying sticks and knives arrived around sunset on Friday last week, as the Syrian-owned restaurants of Gaziantep’s busy Inönü Street were coming to life.
Omar Jaber rushed to pull down the shutters of his small grocery shop as the gang drew closer, smashing up windows and parked cars.
The night before, Turkish soldiers had been hit by an airstrike in the Syrian province of Idlib, an incident which left at least 33 troops dead in the biggest loss of life for the Turkish military in modern history. Jaber knew the Turkish men wanted revenge.
“Eventually the police came and dispersed them,” he said. “Most shop owners here then kept our businesses closed for several days.”
The 61-year-old from Aleppo lost a son in 2012 who died fighting in the early days of the revolution against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. He decided to move his family to Turkey after that.
“There are many good Turks who defend Syrians,” Jaber said. “But generally the mood toward us is hostile.”
Similar scenes have played out across Turkey since Ankara launched a counteroffensive last month to repel an assault by Assad and his Russian allies on Turkish-backed rebel groups in the last opposition stronghold of Idlib.
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