Restaurant run by Somalian refugee closed after months of harassment

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The  co-owner of the restaurant serving African and Arab dishes in Kızılay, Ankara which had experienced several interventions from the Ankara police announced that they closed the restaurant.

The name of the restaurant which was opened in 2019 was changed following interventions from the Ankara police.

Muhammed İsa Abdullah, co-owner of the restaurant tweeted on Friday (December 18) on his social media accounts that they closed the restaurant together with the image of the "closed" sign on its door and wrote, "introduction-body-conclusion."

What happened?

Restaurants that serve immigrant cuisine in the capital Ankara have been subjected to police pressure for nearly a year. One of them is the "Saab" restaurant in the Çankaya district which serves Arabian and African dishes.

The restaurant owner has been facing various acts of harassment since its opening in 2019. In May this year, police asked the manager to take down its signboard. With the support of activists and democratic platforms, a new signboard was placed over the restaurant door.

However, this time police asked the owner to paint the signboard white or threatened to shut down the restaurant.

The colors in question are yellow, red, and green which are the colors of the Union of African States flag. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) also uses the same colors, which was apparently the reason why the police wanted the colors to be changed.

The signboard had to be painted white except for the name of the restaurant in June.

"Is it forbidden to hang a signboard? Is it a crime to work legally in Turkey? This is my identity. I cannot work here as a citizen. I have three children. God gave me my color, I can't wash it, I can't erase it," said the restaurant manager protesting the police oppression saying she was a citizen of the Republic of Türkiye.

Abdullah, the co-owner of the restaurant, was taken into custody to be deported on September 20 but was then released after the legal actions his lawyer took and after demonstrations of solidarity. 

Giriş-Gelişme-Sonuç! pic.twitter.com/IgseGnf4jF

— Mohamed I. ABDULLAHI (@xabxab32) December 16, 2022

(RT/PE)