ISTANBUL: Turkish police were holding 67 people Monday after a mob went on the rampage in a central Anatolian city after a Syrian man was accused of harassing a child.
A group of men targeted Syrian businesses and properties in Kayseri on Sunday evening, with videos on social media showing a grocery store being set on fire.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the latest bout of violence against Turkiye’s large community of Syrian refugees.
“No matter who they are, setting streets and people’s houses on fire is unacceptable,” he said, warning that hate speech should not be used for political gains.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the Syrian national, identified only by his initials as I.A., was caught by Turkish citizens and delivered to the police.
Yerlikaya said on X that the Syrian man was suspected of harassing a Syrian girl, who was his relative.
He said Turks who gathered in the area acted “illegally” and in a manner “that does not suit our human values,” damaging houses, shops and cars belonging to Syrians.
Sixty-seven people were detained after the attacks, he said.
“Turkiye is a state of law and order. Our security forces continue their fight against all crimes and criminals today, as they did yesterday.”
In one of the videos a Turkish man was heard shouting: “We don’t want any more Syrians! We don’t want any more foreigners.”
Local authorities called for calm and revealed the victim was a five-year-old Syrian national.
Turkiye, which hosts some 3.2 million Syrian refugees, has been shaken several times by bouts of xenophobic violence in recent years, often triggered by rumors spreading on social media and instant messaging applications.
In August 2021, groups of men targeted businesses and homes occupied by Syrians in the capital Ankara, after a brawl which cost the life of a 18-year-old man.
The fate of Syrian refugees is also a burning issue in Turkish politics, with Erdogan’s opponents in last year’s election promising to send them back to Syria.

LONDON: Two Palestinian men shot during a military operation in the occupied West Bank told the BBC how Israeli soldiers forced them onto the bonnet of an army jeep and then drove along village roads at high speeds.
Their testimonies come in the wake of footage showing 23-year-old Mujahid Abadi Balas clinging to the bonnet of what appears to be the same Israeli army jeep which has sparked international outrage.
Samir Dabaya, currently hospitalized in Jenin, recounted how he was shot in the back by Israeli forces during the operation in Jabariyat on Saturday. He said he lay face-down for hours, bleeding, until soldiers approached him. On finding the 25-year-old alive, they allegedly beat him with a gun before lifting him onto the vehicle.
“They took off my (trousers). I wanted to hold onto the car, but [one soldier] hit my face and told me not to. Then he started driving,” said Dabaya. “I was waiting for death.”
Dabaya provided the BBC with security camera footage purportedly showing him semi-naked on a fast-moving jeep which was marked with the number 1.
Another Palestinian, Hesham Isleit, also told the BBC he was shot twice during the Jabariyat operation and forced onto the same jeep.
Isleit described there being “shooting from all sides” and said he was collected by an army unit as he tried to flee after being shot in the leg.
He said the jeep was so hot “it felt like fire.”
“I was barefoot and undressed. I tried to put my hand on the jeep and I couldn’t, it was burning hot. I was telling them it was very hot, and they were forcing me to get on — telling me that if I didn’t want to die, I should do it,” he said.
Responding to the original video of Balas, the Israeli army stated he was tied to the jeep in “a violation of orders and procedures” and that an investigation would be conducted into the incident.