A number of newly elected mayors from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) are raising concerns about the prospects of the already widespread anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey growing due to what many call their “racist” and “populist” actions targeting refugees.
Burcu Köksal, the mayor of the nationalist heartland of Afyonkarahisar, is one of them. Köksal ended the years-long Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule in the city in the March 31 local elections by garnering 50.7 percent of the vote, helping her party to emerge victorious for the first time in decades.
Köksal, who came to public attention during her election campaign with remarks targeting the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), last week closed down five businesses in the city that were operated by Syrians without business licenses.
She accompanied the police when they were closing down the businesses, which included a fitness center and grocery stores in several neighborhoods.
Köksal told reporters that, as she promised during her election campaign, she would send all refugees away from Afyonkarahisar.
“I will do whatever it takes to send refugees away from our beautiful Afyonkarahisar,” she said on X, where she also posted photos and a short video from the closing of the illegal places of business.
Sığınmacılara ait olduğu tespit edilen iş yerlerini ruhsatları olmadığı için mühürledik.
Seçimlerden önce söz verdiğimiz gibi sığınmacıları güzel Afyonkarahisar’ımızdan amasız, fakatsız, lakinsiz göndereceğiz. Esnafımız kan ağlarken bu memlekette ruhsatsız bir şekilde işletme… pic.twitter.com/RruDC0mfWG— BURCU KÖKSAL (@Av_Burcu03) April 19, 2024
She said if the illegally run businesses are reopened, the police will again close them down.
Human rights activists and rights defenders slammed Köksal, describing her actions as “racist.” They said if she had ordered the closure of all businesses operating without business licenses, it would have been fine, but that her targeting of refugees specifically reveals her “racist” mindset.
“What you have done is an act of racism and discrimination. Don’t try to capitalize on populism — it’s short-lived, while acts of humanity will live forever,” tweeted Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a DEM Party lawmaker and a renowned human rights activist, referring to Köksal.
There are growing tensions surrounding the 3.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. Anti-refugee sentiment has been on the rise, with Syrians often blamed for Turkey’s economic woes. Rights groups have documented increasing instances of attacks against Syrians.
The newly elected mayor gave the first signs of her dislike of other ethnicities when she was conducting her election campaign. She sparked outrage among Kurdish voters when she said the doors of the municipality would be open to all parties except the DEM Party.
Her remarks came despite Kurds’ supporting CHP candidates in several elections, leading to calls for the withdrawal of her candidacy. Many accused the CHP of hosting “racist” politicians within its ranks who discriminate against a party with millions of voters.
Arabic business signs removed
Other newly elected CHP mayors have shown their dislike of refugees by removing business signs in the Arabic language.
For instance, in the western province of Bursa, where the mayor’s office was taken over from the AKP by the CHP candidate, the new mayor, Mustafa Bozbey, ordered the removal of business signs in languages other than Turkish as of May 1.
It is not yet known whether only the business signs in Arabic on stores run by Syrians or other Arabic-speaking people will be affected, or if others in English will be removed as well.
Other CHP mayors in the northwestern province of Yalova, the southeastern province of Kilis, which hosts a sizable number of Turkey’s Syrian refugees, and the western province of Uşak also ordered the removal of Arabic business signs, while signs in languages such as English and French remained untouched.
Human rights groups in those provinces labelled the municipalities’ move exclusively targeting refugees and signs in Arabic as discriminatory.
In Uşak, not only were signs in Arabic removed but also businesses allegedly run illegally by refugees were shut down. Uşak Mayor Özkan Yalım warned that criminal complaints would be filed against the people who reopened the businesses and continued their operations, according to Turkish media reports.
In a similar move Tanju Özcan, the CHP’s notorious mayor of Bolu in northwestern Turkey, known for his anti-refugee rhetoric, last week promised “an astronomical increase” in bus fares for foreign university students in the city.
He said there are students from 102 countries in Bolu and that the number of foreign students in the city has increased 15-fold in the past three years while warning against the possible “problems” that could arise from the high number of foreign students.
Özcan frequently sparks criticism from human rights groups due to his targeting of refugees living in the city such as imposing exorbitant fees for municipal services.
He was expelled from the CHP in July amid his calls for a change in leadership to replace the party’s former chairman, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Following the election of Özgür Özel as the party’s leader in early November, the CHP’s party council decided to allow Özcan to return to the party.
Özcan ran again in Bolu as the CHP’s mayoral candidate in the March 31 local elections and won the seat by garnering 52.9 percent of the vote.
Although the CHP positions itself as a left-wing and social democratic party and has been a member of Socialist International (SI), the worldwide organization of political parties seeking to establish democratic socialism, since 1976, the party’s loyalty and compliance with social democrat values and whether it deserves to be an SI member frequently comes into question due to some of the party’s policies.
Some CHP mayors and politicians such as Özcan are notorious for their anti-refugee policies and rhetoric.
The party’s former chairman, Kılıçdaroğlu, who was the joint presidential candidate of an opposition alliance for the presidential election held in May, drew ire for making an election alliance for the runoff election with the far-right, ultranationalist Victory Party (ZP). He was defeated by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
He promised to send Syrian refugees who had taken shelter in Turkey back to Syria if he was elected president, a promise that many interpreted as being populist and not befitting the leader of a “social-democrat” party in the wake of the rising anti-refugee sentiment in the country.