Even though one and a half years have passed since the turmoil in Syria began, information pollution and uncertainty of the duel between conflicting sides – first in words and then in arms – rages on. As Syria tries to make sense of the U-turn in Turkey’s attitude, those who govern are insistent upon Assad’s departure. As for the USA, who played a key role in escalating the situation to its present state, it’s occupied with the disorganization and growing number of Syrian dissidents and difficulties in finding a replacement for Bashar al Assad.
As Prime Minister Erdogan and Foreign Minister Davutoglu gave us a list of Syrian sanctions, Turkish Grand National Assembly Speaker Cemil Cicek warned, “No one should attempt oriental cunning by watching from the sidelines, saying, ‘Let Turkey handle this.’”
Some say the reason behind this is the Tarsus–Haifa–Mosul oil pipeline – the most effective and powerful pipeline on the planet – that Israel, the USA, UK and EU want to get their hands on. Others say the problem stems from the USA wanting a base in Syria, who is reluctant to sell out Russia and China.
Some regard this as democracy and others as a belated popular uprising, but it seems what’s happening is simply people being trampled and losing their lives like grass under the feet of elephants.
It was inevitable instability in Syria spread to Turkey. We all know “a neighbor’s loss is our loss” and “a neighbor’s gain is our gain”. With this in mind, Syrians must determine Syria’s future.
What’s going on in Hatay? What are people talking about? Why are they uneasy?
It’s inappropriate for Turkey to intervene directly in affairs of a neighboring country and people it called brothers. The emotional behavior of Arab Alawis living in Hatay, the Alawi-Sunni conflict, exhortations of “Let’s make it clear where we stand” are all false; unconvincing. Alawis in Hatay are bonded by family relationships, half who were in Syria and the other half in Turkey when borders were drawn. The same is true for Christians and Sunnis.
The minority Alawis had always been under suspicion. They were regarded with skepticism: “Alawis are acquiring land on behalf of Syria; they cannot be trusted!” This was what was in reports sent by our local governors who were closest to us, who we lived with, and who we put on a pedestal. The Christian community of 1,000-2,000 people and the 100-strong Jewish assemblage had never been seen as a threat, anyway.
I’ll share a story from my own experience: My late father kept us from seeing relatives in Syria for many years, we grew up without knowing them. One day, a couple of women from a group visiting Turkey called us up. My father got excited, saying, “My cousins are in Antakya! I’m going to pick them up.” I never forgot that night. Police were around our house until morning. Our relatives and we were very uneasy. When asked why all the commotion, my father said the cousins’ husbands were high-level officials in Syria. We severed ties with our relatives for fear that the smallest visit could cause pressure and tension that might follow us even if we left Hatay for an education in the future. When my father passed away, though, relatives from Syria visited us, including my father’s 99-year-old uncle. By 1993, our relationships were improving and we didn’t have problems.
During 1998-2006, I was President of the Environmental Protection Society of Hatay, and the Syrian government invited NGO representatives from Antakya to Rakka, in the Euphrates dam watershed, as part of a movement toward a more civil administration. The goal was to share experiences. We told the Syrians what the civil movement in Turkey had done and what we could do together, and they kept saying, “It won’t work.” I delivered most of my presentation in Arabic, which impressed them. They presented me with garments worn by Bedouin women. I attended dinner that night in that dress and felt quite at home because part of me was Syrian. Officials told us Assad’s son was more pro-democracy than his father, he worked for social peace, he had married Esma, a Sunni, as a first step; he took care to preserve the ethnic balance in the administration, and everything was different. They explained how civil movements were started by the state and run by government agencies. Baffled as we were by this genre of democratic progress, we weren’t able to make them understand that their NGO’s had to be civil and autonomous like ours. Actually, they understood, but they played dumb because they knew they could never do that.
As we left, each of us was handed an envelope with money. This surprised us because we had been hosted in the best possible manner. Later, we received an invitation to a culture and arts festival and we met again, discussing things that, according to them, had to be discussed in silence. We invited them to the meeting of the Mediterranean Environment Platform (AKÇEP) held in the Turkish province of Burdur. They decided to come.
Ms. Sems, Environment Director in Syria and French-educated agricultural engineer Dr. Ali, who conducted conservation work in the Euphrates basin, came with us. The plainclothesmen did not give us a moment alone when we checked into our hotel. They probed for information, asking, “What are you discussing? Who are you? Why did you come? What are the topics?” Ms. Sems talked about environmental problems in Syria and Dr. Ali talked about conservation work in the basin. Ulrike Dufner, Turkey Representative of the Heinrich Boll Stiftung Association, which partly paid for our meeting, said we were wrong to host visitors in Burdur instead of in the west of Turkey where they could be hosted better. Some associates reacted to the meeting, saying, “What do we care about environmental problems in Syria?” It seemed as if democracy had not yet been fully embraced in Turkey, either. We finished the meeting with the civil police and went home with a feeling of being a potential suspect. Environmental problems are experienced on a global scale, so how could we find a solution to pollution in the Orontes River without joining forces with Syria?
We, who live in Turkey’s border provinces, had to suffer from these wrong political decisions. Intellectuals, progressives and democrats in Hatay had no objections to the settling of, and receiving humanitarian aid for Syrians who crossed the border to the tent cities. But now, residents of Hatay are disturbed by policies implemented by the government. Economic losses in our region have reached serious proportions. We live in fear that war can erupt any time. Tensions have been at an extreme over the last couple of months in particular. The only topic is the plight of Syria and Hatay, with an accent on minorities.
“Refugees” freely roam streets, parks, malls, neighborhoods, restaurants – everywhere in Antakya. Some walk accompanied by armed guards in military outfits. Some are armed men with a beard but no mustache, wearing long overgarments, sports shoes or military boots. We doubt if these are Syrians because we have had economic, familial and neighborly ties with Syrians for years and these people do not look like the Syrians we know. Citizens of Antakya call them “hired killers” or “plunderers”.
There are prerequisites to being a refugee. Seeking refuge is a right safeguarded by international law. But the situation in Antakya is different. When something happens that sends tensions soaring, people in the camps start a riot, saying, “This isn’t what you promised! You were going to give us homes, jobs, wages!”
Camp dwellers spew hatred at doctors there to treat them, saying “Are you an Alawi? Don’t touch me if you are!” They take humanitarian aid issued and sell it downtown the same day. Some get free medical exams and medicine in town without an ID simply by stating their names for the record. They ask doctors for sun lotion, Viagra and lens solution and the government pays for it. The emergency ward in the state hospital in Antakya is often closed to locals for three days on end, serving only refugees. Emergency patients in Antakya are left to die untreated.
Refugees at health clinics do not wait in line. They cause disturbance by saying, “We have priority! You’ve got to treat us first!” When questioned about their problem and instructed to queue like everyone else because they are not emergency patients, they retort, “We’re Muslims. We’re going to complain to Tayyip.”
Vagrant refugees enter restaurants, eat and leave without paying – but not before causing a scene about the bill, saying it will be paid by Tayyip. They are a nuisance for local shopkeepers. When they see a girl walk by wearing shorts, they harass and scare her with hand gestures signaling, “I’ll cut your throat.” A gang of refugees spreads fear in the neighborhood near the old intercity bus terminal, saying, “This place is nice. It’ll all be ours soon.” A group of bearded men arrived at a gas station around 2 AM the other night and left without paying, uttering, “The time is near. Everything here will be ours.” These are a few examples, but local shopkeepers have had enough. When they ask the freeloaders to pay for what they took and ate, the freeloaders reply, “We’ll see you later. We like these places. They’re going to be ours soon enough,” and they leave without paying. They act as if they have the guarantee that police are going to protect them rather than us. We cannot call the police because they tell us, “Don’t make a fuss! They are guests. Just keep clear of them.”
I flew from Istanbul to Hatay on 7 August 2012, and one third of the passengers were strangely dressed, bearded men. One mentioned that he was coming from Libya. They got off the aircraft after all passengers had disembarked, picked up their unusual-looking luggage, checked out through the VIP gate and were driven off in waiting vehicles. They were not Syrians. When Co-chair of the German Greens Party Claudia Roth came we told her about this, and found that she had a similar flight, which had put her ill at ease. When she returned to Germany, she announced that these bearded men were not there to bring democracy.
These people rent houses, TIR trucks pull up, materials are offloaded, meetings are held and they disperse late at night. They block apartment driveways but no one dares protest. Some make a lot of noise but no one can say anything. Neighbors who attempted to do so got beaten and police did not intervene. When someone does muster the courage to intervene against refugees, he finds himself alone because nobody dares to put himself at risk.
There’s plenty of polluted information on the internet from both the Alawis and Sunni interest groups such: “We don’t want Alawis. They’re Assad’s lapdogs. Their goal is to found a Nusayri state including Hatay. They’re going to kick Sunnis out of Hatay. We should not allow them.”
As for the Alawis, their tone is more hardline, as the rallying cry, “It’s time to take up arms! God bless Assad with more power so he can do away with them all,” which does not bode well for the future. During the rally in support of Syria four months ago, a group of provocateurs showed up waving Assad’s photographs and the Syrian flag. We wished Turkish and Syrian flags had been waved together and slogans shouted for peace, but it was too late. The following day, several local newspapers ran headlines reading, “Alawis rallied for Assad but did not bat an eye for martyred policemen.” Everyone was interpreting things how they wanted. From that time, regardless of whether they were supporters or dissidents, no groups from out of town were given permission to stage a demonstration.
The Antakya Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Antakya Commerce Bourse, Industrialist Business People’s Association of Hatay, and Young Businessmen’s Association of Hatay announced all business sectors were seriously impacted, with many companies verging on bankruptcy – especially the transportation industry because of burning and pillaging of TIR trucks and subsequent border closure. They explained the annual volume of exports to Syria was 30 million dollars in more stable times and the adverse effects of the current situation not only hit local businesses but were also felt by merchants as far away as Istanbul. A couple of years ago, rich Syrians visited Istanbul for pleasure; middle-income Syrians regularly came to Mersin and its environs; and relatives of local folk, day-trippers, or weekend holidaymakers preferred Antakya. Today, tourism has taken a crippling blow because the prerequisite for tourism is peace.
Professional organizations in Hatay put together a civil platform called Hatay Professional Chambers Coordination Council (HAMOK). They try to build public opinion through a joint decision-making mechanism by convening their boards on issues concerning Hatay. HAMOK believes that the problem in Hatay more pressing than the economy is safety and peace. Environmental protection associations, HAMOK and others currently have a consultation team, of which I’m a member, that discusses ways to avert the collapse of the climate of peace. The team is engaged in enlisting public support to ensure rights of refugees are granted in compliance with international law, real victims receive services they need, humanitarian aid efforts are conducted effectively, the odd-looking, bearded and armed gangs roaming our streets are eliminated, hospitals are reopened to local residents by setting up a field hospital for 3 million dollars in aid if necessary, and bearded types infiltrating our neighborhoods are prevented from doing whatever they are up to.
NGO’s in Hatay are not idle, but anxiety is mounting. Schools open on 17 September and we’re worried what may happen to our children on their way to and from school in this unsecure atmosphere.
The cause of this anxiety is the efforts of pro-AKP media targeting religious sects and their hateful rhetoric. They no longer use the term “Alawi” but use “Nusayris” in an effort to divide, fragment, otherize and thus prepare ground for a sectorial conflict that could escalate into a massacre.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) has offices in Hatay and members of the press openly tell us they will go to the FSA offices for an interview after interviewing us. Neither authorities nor police showed the slightest reaction to FSA’s threat of “Your turn will come” by pointing a finger at the Alawis. In fact, a Turkish policeman was shot with his own firearm by dissidents but the incident was covered up.
Governor of Hatay Celalettin Lekesiz is a well-liked administrator who maintains strong dialogue with the public. When approached on a daily basis by a string of NGO representatives eager to voice their worries, he brought together representatives of all NGO’s, political parties; Alawi, Sunni, Jewish, Christian, and Armenian community leaders, and opinion leaders. Everyone expressed the wish for tolerance, brotherhood and peace. First to speak were the province mufti, Alawi sheikh, Christian priest, Armenian priest and Jewish rabbi. They mentioned how their communities had been living together for centuries. They recalled our chorus of civilizations. The political party representatives also shook hands and said, “We are one.”
We felt gloomier as we left the nearly four-hour meeting because we had no say. We had to choke down our protest because the problem was not the public. We were already living as peaceful, comfortable and brotherly a life as possible until letters were seized on the border saying, “You will be religiously sanctioned to enjoy the properties and women of the Alawis after the revolution.” These offensive provocations went on. Peace no longer prevailed in Hatay. The buzzword among 15 and 16-year-old children in camps was “Massacre.”
Camp dwellers threaten, “Your turn will come after we take care of Assad.” Alawis heard it because they speak Arabic. Contractors building the tent city, doctors treating the sick, technicians setting up the security system, couriers delivering medicine – they all heard.
Worries over the presence of “secret agents” and “Al Qaida” run rampant
Chairperson of the Hatay Industrialist Businessmen’s Association (HAS‹AD) Gulay Gul was urged by authorities to exercise restraint in her statements after she announced, “Apart from the economic crisis, Hatay has been experiencing serious problems security-wise. Hatay is a symbol of peace and its citizens know each other. Security is top-notch in this town. Recently, though, uneasiness has set in because of the presence and annoying stares of strange-looking, unsavory characters who roam the streets. I had no problems walking down the streets of my hometown after hours but now I cannot venture out of my house. 23 July was the anniversary of Hatay’s annexation to the Turkish homeland and we, the people of Hatay, must close ranks and lay claim to Hatay’s values of peace, brotherhood, and tolerance; and exercise greater common sense.” Gul said, “I spoke what I felt and what townspeople were talking about. I was their voice,” and she made no further comments despite queries from the press.
CHP deputies speak loudly with the motions they make in parliament and information they get from the public. It’s mentioned, for example, that ambulances carry weapons to the border and come back with wounded. Hatay residents are familiar with violence perpetrated against Syrians by mercenaries backed by foreign sources. Armed groups entered Syria through the Reyhanli border and seized Syria’s Bab el Hava border gate. The rush of weapons during that time was said to be of incredible proportions. Three commercial TIR trucks were set afire at the border. Twelve TIR’s with merchandise were looted, several were hijacked. Turkish citizens engaged in shuttle trade attempting to cross to the Turkish side were attacked, beaten, and intimidated by refugees who asked them, “How were you able to get out unscathed? You must be on their side.” After this, the governorate warned the public not to cross the border in either direction.
Hatay residents resent the approach of the media. They get angry when media churns out false reports such as when reporters set up cameras in a locale in Harbiye, 45 kilometers from Syria, and made it seem as they were reporting from Syrian territory and hearing blasts from a battle “nearby.” This team was roughed up and kicked out of Harbiye. We have witnessed many other newspapers publishing false stories pretending everything was taking place in Syria. We have relatives in every Syrian town and when we call, we feel they are worried but don’t want to say anything.
I subscribe to a peaceful outlook against violence and war, and though I don’t regard revolutions as an inevitable and indispensable, albeit bloody, price to pay for political change, I believe it’s a right for people under intense pressure to stand up and resist violence by the ruling authority when channels of democracy and negotiation are cut off. Uprisings are edifying for both the people uprising and others. Let the Syrians to determine their fate.
I’m an Alawi and I tried to describe what’s happening in Hatay but I’m also enough of a democrat to know I have to respect a conservative government ruling my country if the majority of people voted it in. We, the people of Hatay, must oppose such a policy because this approach will not only inflame domestic strife but also constitute a serious threat against peace. Residents need neither a conflict between Alawis and Sunnis – as some circles try to spark – nor differentiation. Both Alawis and Sunnis have been careful not to agitate sensibilities in the past and they still are. We must not let ourselves be tricked into this dangerous game because we know the consequences. It must be the duty of each of us to warn the AKP government against incidents that are occuring and possible conflict scenarios that may unfold. As Voltaire said to a political opponent, “I don’t agree with a word you say but I would die defending your right to say it.”