Attacks on Syrians in Turkey increasing
Increasing numbers of Turks are angered over the social and economic consequence of Turkey hosting some 2 million Syrian refugees.
The government of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu continues to maintain Ankara’s open door policy for Syria refugees and to allocate state monies to support them. Although the government remains welcoming toward the refugees, it is hard to say the same for ordinary Turks, who believe their government's resources should be spent to alleviate poverty among themselves. The increase in the number of demonstrations against the refugees and attacks on them across the country, in cities as socially diverse as Istanbul and Gaziantep and Izmir and Urfa, attest to this.
At a May 13 address to NATO foreign ministers in Antalya, Davutoglu put the figure of Syrians currently in Turkey at more than 2 million. He bemoaned that while Turkey has spent more than $6.5 billion on the refugees, the total amount of international assistance received toward the effort was only around $365 million.
