A 42-year-old Syrian man was murdered in a knife attack at an industrial site in Turkey in what appears to be a racially motivated incident, according to Karar daily journalist Sema Kızılarslan.
The victim, identified as Hüseyin Azuz, sustained stab wounds to the head while praying at his workplace. Two of his coworkers were also seriously injured in the attack, which took place after threats from Turkish workers at the site.
Azuz, a father of three, had been threatened after warning workers to avoid an area where metal was being cut, saying, “Don’t go through here, we’re cutting iron, it could hit you.”
Turkish workers reportedly responded, “You can’t declare yourself king here. We are in charge, and we won’t take orders from a Syrian.”
Fearing an attack, Azuz’s employer had stayed with him for the next two days. However, on the third day, a group of around 10 people stormed the workplace and carried out the attack while Azuz was praying.
In recent years refugees and minorities have become the groups most targeted by negative political rhetoric and hate speech in Turkey. In such an environment, Syrians have been at the center of anti-refugee sentiment, expressed in particular on social media and often by political parties. With inflation soaring in recent years, they have been blamed for many of Turkey’s social and economic ills.
Cornered by the opposition and the unease among its own voter base, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been compelled to announce more stringent measures as well as “voluntary return” programs. Human rights advocates have accused the authorities of coercing the migrants to sign voluntary return documents under torture.
Turkey, under its temporary protection regime, has granted 3,535,898 Syrian nationals the right to legally stay in the country. The vast majority, 3,488,373, of them live outside camps, while 47,525 Syrians reside in seven camps, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
