Tue 08 October 2019:
The suicide of a 9-year-old Syrian child in western Kocaeli province and claims that he was discriminated against at school once again exposed the social and psychological dangers of racist and discriminatory political rhetoric.On Friday, the 9-year-old committed suicide by hanging himself from the door of a cemetery in Kocaeli’s Kartepe district.
Reports said, people saw the body and reported it to officials. Investigators identified the body as fifth-grader Vail al-Suud’s.
The media also claimed that al-Suud allegedly faced discrimination at school because he was Syrian.
Some politicians in Turkey and Europe often use discriminatory and racist rhetoric against refugees.
For instance, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), despite recently organizing an international Syria conference in Istanbul, has a history of using anti-refugee rhetoric. During the June 2018 parliamentary and presidential elections campaign, CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu adopted a populist and exclusionary interpretation of nationalism in a bid to garner votes. At a rally in northern Turkey’s Giresun in 2017, Kılıçdaroğlu said: “There’s no money for farmers, but do you know how much has been spent on the Syrians? $30 billion. They have become first-class citizens. The price of hazelnuts has made people in the Black Sea Region second-class citizens. You will ask for an account of this.”
The CHP mayor of western Turkey’s Bolu, Tanju Özcan instructed municipality departments to stop relief and aid for foreigners and demanded Syrian refugees return home as soon as possible.
Despite facing stern criticism, he saw through with his anti-refugee plan, saying that Iraqi, Syrian and Afghan refugees were living in the “highest standards” in Bolu.
The CHP mayor of the Kemalpaşa district in western Turkey’s İzmir, Rıdvan Karakayalı is another example of the party’s increasing anti-refugee rhetoric.
He has promised to expel all Syrian refugees from the district. “We will get rid of Syrians. There is peace in Syria, so what are they doing here?” Karakayalı said on a TV program. Karakayalı also declared war on signboards carrying “Syrian language” in his district, referring to Arabic, saying he will take legal action.
“There are shops with signboards with the ‘Syrian language’ near our party [building]. I will remove them. They will be taken away from here. They will return to their countries,” he said on the TV program.
A few months ago, the International Refugee Rights Association filed a criminal complaint against the Bolu mayor.
Speaking for the association, lawyer Uğur Yıldırım said Özcan’s decision has caused public resentment. He did not heed the calls of civil society organizations and lawyers as he continued his discriminatory policies against Syrian refugees.
Yıldırım added that Özcan violated the Human Rights Declaration’s Article 14, which assures the right of sanctuary and asylum. “He also violated the right to equality and equal access to municipality services listed in the Constitution,” Yıldırım said.
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