Syria refugees in fear as Turkey sentiment turns

Refugees fleeing the war in Syria were once welcomed in Turkey with open arms out of sympathy and compassion for fellow Muslims.

But as their numbers swelled — resulting in Turkey hosting one of the largest refugee populations in the world — attitudes have shifted toward growing resentment and hostility.

Fatima Alzahra Shon, a 32-year-old Syrian refugee living in Istanbul with her three children, recounted the night she was beaten and pushed down a flight of stairs by her Turkish neighbors.

"What are you doing in our country? I am going to cut you into pieces, you and your children," Shon said one of the neighbors threatened, as she broke down in tears during an interview with the Associated Press.

Shon's middle son, Amr, who tried to rescue her, was also attacked by them, one of whom claimed to be a civil servant.

The anti-migrant sentiment has reached a boiling point as many people in Turkey struggle with high unemployment and rampant inflation, including skyrocketing food and housing prices.

The prospect of a new influx of refugees and migrants fleeing Afghanistan following the country's takeover by the Taliban has further hardened public opinion.

"Turkey absorbed a foreign country the size of roughly Slovakia," said Selim Sazak, a visiting researcher at Ankara's Bilkent University and an advisor to officials from the opposition IYI Party.

"Everyone thought that it would be temporary," Sazak said, and added that Turkish residents are only starting to understand that they now have to accept the refugees as "neighbors, economic competitors, colleagues."

Even though elections are two years away, the migration issue is set to become a top political campaign topic.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has long defended the country's former open-door policy toward refugees, has recently acknowledged the public's "unease" and has vowed not to allow the country to become a "warehouse" for refugees.

His government has reinforced the eastern frontier with Iran to stem the flow of Afghan migrants and is speeding up the construction of a border wall.

Turkey hosts 5 million foreign nationals, including 3.7 million Syrians and 300,000 Afghans, many of whom made their way into Turkey before the Taliban takeover.

More than 460,000 Syrians have returned to Syria, according to government figures.