Öznur Değer 

 

ANKARA - While the traces of the racist attack on Syrian refugees in Altındağ continue, refugees who want to move from the neighborhood are not given a home after the attack. Thereupon, most of the real estators we interviewed from various districts and neighborhoods stated: ‘’Houses are not given to foreigners’’, while some said, ‘’There are owners who give, and there are those who do not.’’

 

Increasing racist approaches and discourses in Turkey also lead to new racist attacks. In particular, the political power's rhetoric that legitimizes racism provides a basis for the spread of racism, while the impunity policies of the judiciary almost reward and encourage racism. While eight Kurds, including four women, were killed as a result of racist attacks in the last month, many Kurds were injured as a result of racist attacks in cities such as Konya, Ankara, Çorum, Antalya and Afyon.

 

Monist ideology

 

While the ideology of ‘’one religion, one language, one race’’ constituted the main reasons for the increase in racist attacks against Kurds in the country, refugees fleeing the war after the Kurds were also targeted by the same ideology. The last example of this happened in Ankara.

 

One week after the attack

 

As a result of the death of Emirhan Yalçın in a fight that broke out on August 10 in the Battalgazi Neighborhood of Ankara's Altındağ district, racist attacks began against Syrian refugees living in the neighborhood. As a result of these attacks, which lasted until August 10-11-12, many refugees, including children, were injured, their homes were stoned, and their workplaces were stoned and looted. A week after the events, we went to Battalgazi Neighborhood, where the attack took place, to observe the lives of refugees. Even though a week has passed, it is possible to feel the heat of the attack in the neighborhood. While refugees are waiting for their destroyed, stoned and looted workplaces to be repaired, they still have not been able to open their workplaces. Although the broken windows of some workplaces have been repaired, it is possible to see the traces of the attack in most of them.

 

Police still on watch

 

As a result of our tour in the neighborhood, we were able to see that refugees, especially women and children, were in fear due to the impact of the attack. While some of the refugees, who cannot open their workplaces yet, are keeping watch in their shops behind broken glass, it is also possible to see police keep watch at almost every street corner. While most of the women do not leave their homes, some of them cannot leave the house except to visit the market to meet their basic needs such as bread and water. Although many police officers were assigned to the neighborhood for ‘’security’’ purposes, we could see the racist attitudes, discourses and approaches of many residents. While Syrian refugees are not yet allowed to open their workplaces, announcements are made frequently that the residents of the neighborhood whose workplaces are open should close their workplaces at 18:00 pm.

 

‘We are afraid’

 

A refugee woman, who noted that she still lived in fear after the attack, pointed out that her children were also in fear. Adding to her words that they could not leave the house, the woman states that they could not move to another place due to financial inadequacy, and that they could not find a house even if they wanted to move. ‘’There is no law here. We are afraid. My children can't get out of fear. Nobody is giving a house and the rents are too high. We live hard here,’’ she said.

 

The biggest problem is not being able to find a house

 

One of the biggest problems faced by Syrian refugees after the attack is the problem of not being able to find a home. It became almost impossible for the refugees, who had difficulty in finding a house before the attack, to find a house after the attack. We conducted a research on the fact that refugees who were injured in the attack and had to leave all their belongings and live elsewhere, could not find a rental home, and asked about the approaches of homeowners and real estate agents to refugees.

 

10 of them do not give house

 

While 10 of the 34 real estators we reached from different towns and districts left us unanswered, 10 said that the homeowner did not provide a rental home to refugees, Syrians or foreigners. Seven real estators we reached said that they did not have flats for rent, and five stated that some of the homeowners gave the refugee a house for rent and some did not. A real estator we reached almost hung up the phone when he heard that the house was wanted for Syrians, while a real estator verbally harassed us.

 

‘The homeowner does not want to give the house’

 

Real estators, who did not offer any reason for not giving the refugees a rental home, said: ‘’The homeowner does not want to give, we do not know why.’’ Although almost all of the real estators said that ‘’the homeowner wants a civil servant or the officer wants a guarantor’’, when they learned that the house was wanted for the refugee, they were able to say ‘’we do not give’’. Although the real estators stated that the homeowners do not want ‘’foreigners’’ and that there is nothing they can do, some real estators did not hesitate to do racist approaches.

 

Some real estators, on the other hand, made statements such as ‘’We do not give house to rent’’ to ‘’Syrians’’, ‘’refugees’’ or ‘’foreigners’’.