Turkey detains more than 70 suspects over mob attack on Syrians

dpa Istanbul Police in Turkey’s capital Ankara detained 76 people for participating in riots and attacks on Syrian homes and shops and distributing “fake ...

dpa IstanbulPolice in Turkey’s capital Ankara detained 76 people for participating in riots and attacks on Syrian homes and shops and distributing “fake news” on social media to “provoke” the public, the police department said.Thirty-eight of those captured had previous criminal records for looting, assault or drug trafficking, the Ankara police said.It urged residents against acting on “provocative” news reports and social media posts.On Wednesday evening, hundreds of angry locals attacked homes and businesses they believed were owned by Syrian migrants in Ankara’s Altindag district after news that a Turkish youth was stabbed to death in a fight allegedly with Syrians.The mob marched through Altindag, throwing stones at apartments where they suspected Syrians live and looting shops, local media reported.Footage on social media showed cars destroyed in a dangerous escalation of resentment against migrants in Turkey, home to more than 4 million refugees, 3.6 million of them Syrians.A Syrian child was injured in the head after a stone landed in the apartment, Kerem Kinik, the head of Turkish Red Crescent said.The situation was under control by early Thursday, the Ankara governor’s office wrote on Twitter.The stabbing and death of 18-year-old Emirhan Yalcin on Wednesday in a fight in Altindag triggered the riot. State news agency Anadolu said two foreigners were detained in connection with the the death of the Turkish teenager.Locals accuse Syrians of killing Yalcin. The details of the fight were not immediately clear. The anti-migrant sentiment in the country has been rising for the past few weeks as images on social media showed hundreds of Afghans illegally crossing the border with Iran into Turkey.The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), among others, has heightened its rhetoric against refugees, vowing to send them back to their country of origin.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan argued the migrant issue was “exaggerated” on social media in a television interview late on Wednesday, adding his government is building walls along the borders with Iran and Iraq to avoid irregular migration.