Turkey is the country that hosts the most refugees in the world: 3.7 million Syrians are present, according to an official figure, which rises to 5 million, if we add refugees of other nationalities, in particular Afghans. However, in Turkish society, their presence is arousing more and more hostility, which the opposition is trying to exploit a year of elections which promise to be difficult for President Erdogan.
So, in an attempt to appease this anti-refugee sentiment, the Turkish authorities have taken an unprecedented measure: Syrians registered in the country are not allowed to return to Syria during the end of Ramadan, which began on May 2, as a small part of them did every year.
This decision came after yet another controversy triggered by the main opposition party, the CHP, the Republican People’s Party, created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Its leader, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, has once again promised to send all Syrians home if they win next year’s elections, while the authorities – starting with President Erdogan – have so far repeated that There is no question of sending them back against their will, as long as their country is not at peace.
This anti-refugee escalation is of great concern to Shady Eed, a Syrian artist who has lived in Istanbul for 10 years. This denier had not planned to return to Syria for Eid al-Fitr. But the repeated controversies in the political arena and on social networks reinforce for him the feeling of being “stuck” in an in-between. He uses the word “Arafwhich means, in Islam, the place between heaven and hell: purgatory.
“This is the situation of those who have left Syria. In Turkey, if you dress well, they say: ‘Look at these Syrians, they are having a good time!’ When you are not well dressed, we say: ‘Look at their outfit, they don’t know how to stand!’ When you find a job, we say: ‘And here comes another Syrian who steals our work!” When you are not working, we say: ‘What lazy people, these Syrians!’ Even though I did a doctorate in Turkey, even though I’m an artist and even though I speak several languages, I’m stuck in Istanbul. I can’t leave town to do university research. I cannot leave the country to exhibit my works elsewhere. In Europe, anyway, nobody wants us… Whatever we do, there is no way out”he laments.
Like the other Syrians in Turkey, the painter does not benefit from the status of “refugee” strictly speaking, but from “temporary protection”. A protection which, of course, offers him rights, such as access to healthcare, education, the labor market, but with huge gaps. This status prevents him, for example, from leaving his province of registration, namely Istanbul. Shady and those of his compatriots who do not wish to participate in one of the “voluntary return” programs in Syria set up by the Turkish authorities are therefore well and truly stuck, physically and mentally. And given the attitude of the opposition, the artist is very apprehensive about the campaign for the legislative and presidential elections of June 2023.