Protests and arrests as anti-Syrian riots rock Turkey
Al Jazeera
More than 470 people have been taken into custody after mobs attacked Syrian shops and cars in central Turkey.
Turkey’s government is urging for calm after mob violence against Syrian refugees broke out in the central Melikgazi region and spread to other areas.
Riots erupted after Turkish authorities arrested a Syrian man for allegedly sexually abusing a seven-year-old Syrian girl in the central city of Kayseri.
Turkish residents, infuriated by online reports of the crime, flipped over cars in Kayseri and set Syrian-run shops alight on Sunday night, demanding that Syrians be kicked out of the country.
The violence spread to the southern province of Hatay, where protesters set a Syrian grocery store ablaze.
The riots “damaged houses, workplaces, and vehicles belonging to Syrian nationals”, said Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, who accused those responsible of acting “illegally in an attitude that does not suit our human values”.
