‘280 racist attacks in Turkey in 10 years’

* Photo: sehak.org - "You are different, too; don't hate"

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The Human Rights Association (İHD) has released its "Special Report on Hate Crimes and Recent Racist Attacks in Turkey."

As reported by Mezopotamya Agency (MA), the report of the association has underlined that the lack of a comprehensive legal framework regarding hate crimes leads to serious legal loopholes.

It has been further indicated that the increase in the number of racist attacks targeting several groups, especially Syrian refugees and Kurdish seasonal workers, is directly related to "impunity" in Turkey.

27 people died as a result of hate attacks

According to the report of the İHD, while one person died in a racist attack in 2019, five people lost their lives in the attacks targeting the LGBTI+s. 27 people lost their lives in hate attacks last year.

Since 2010, 280 racist attacks have taken place; while 15 people were killed in these attacks, 1,097 people were wounded.

Details from the report

The report of the association has also referred to the attacks targeting graves. According to the report, 47 attacks were launched on graves.

Underlining that impunity has been adopted as a state policy in Turkey, the report has specifically referred to the release of Specialist Sergeant Musa Orhan, who abducted and sexually assaulted 18-year-old İpek Er in Kurdish-majority Batman province and drove her to suicide.

The attacks indicated in the report:

* Hoping that he would earn money and get education, Hafizullah (18) from Afghanistan came to Turkey; however, he was stabbed to death in Ataşehir, İstanbul on May 30, 2020 while he was collecting used paper.

* On May 31, 2020, Barış Çakan (20) from Patnos, Ağrı was stabbed to death in Alsancak neighborhood in Etimesgut district of Ankara at around 10.30 p.m. because he was listening to Kurdish music.

* On June 7, 2020, Taha B. attacked the Yusuf family from Syria in the neighborhood of Uzunkavak in Reyhanlı, Hatay. Wounded in the armed attack, Halid Yusuf (2) lost his life on June 9, 2020. Grandfather Muhammed Yusuf was also seriously wounded in the attack.

* Mehmet Nur Deniz alleged that when he went to the Şişli Sub-Governor's Office in İstanbul to get social aid on June 12, 2020, he was battered by the officials there and subjected to racist and discriminatory statements because of his Kurdish identity.

* Working in the recycling business in Turkey's Black Sea province of Giresun, Osman İnan was attacked by a group of 50-60 people on June 14, 2020 because he shared the picture of Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned former Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

* On July 15, 2020, working in a bazaar in the district of Gürsu in Bursa province, Hamza Acan (17) from Syria warned a group who verbally harassed a Syrian woman and was also working in the bazaar. In the ensuing fight, he was hit by a stone in his head and seriously wounded. Taken to a hospital, he lost his life due to a cerebral hemorrhage.

* Kurdish workers working as forest workers in the villages of Bazlamaç and Kayalar in Çekerek, Yozgat were attacked on July 21, 2020.

* As reported in the press on July 30, 2020, after they left the preparation course for the Foreign Student Exam (YÖS) in Kırıkhan, Hatay on July 26, 2020, five students from Syria were attacked by a racist group who said, "You will either leave this country or we will kill you."

* As reported by the press on August 1, 2020, Muhammed Saeed (19), a refugee from Syria, was attacked by a racist group in the district of Küçükçekmece in İstanbul on July 26, 2020.

* In Zeytinburnu, İstanbul, six people from Syria were first verbally attacked by an unidentified person on August 17, 2020. He then opened fire on the group. Abdulkadir Davud (21) from Syria died in the attack.

* Construction workers were targeted in an armed attack by a person named Ömer A. in Dinar, Afyon on September 13, 2020. While Özkan Tokay lost his life in the attack, two workers (Fırat T and Emrah Ö.) were wounded.

* According to the news reported in the press on September 14, 2020, Eymen Hammami (16) from Syria was killed in a racist attack in Samsun.

* As reported in the press on September 14, 2020, conscript Çetin Doğan was attacked by a group of racist soldiers in the 54th Mechanized Infantry Brigade in the district of Süloğlu in Turkey's northwestern province of Edirne on August 15, 2020. (EMK/SD)