The horror and pain did not stop when the Syrian family lost its young breadwinner, who lost his life with a knife stab in front of his house and in front of his wife. Rather, the ordeal that the Syrian family is going through in the Turkish city of Reyhanlı goes beyond this murder, to live the horror of revenge after it was suspected of following the perpetrator and defending the right of the murdered young father.
(Khaled M.) left three children and a young wife after his death. The family lives in the same neighborhood as the perpetrator’s family. Her stab in the offender’s face caused the heart of the treacherous young man to fall dead instantly. The warnings of the neighbors and some of those who present themselves as peace mediators made the Syrian widow live in fear for her safety and her children, and she searches for a safe haven without giving up pursuing her husband’s rights.
The details of the story go back to a killing incident that took place in a neighborhood in the Turkish city of Reyhanli on the morning of Tuesday, May 2. Some young men knocked on the door of the house of the Syrian youth Khaled (father of three children) at 5:15 in the morning. They were six young men, including a Syrian, who told him that he had come to be a mediator between him and the Turkish youth so that they would reconcile, according to what the victim’s family told Mohajer News.
Drug dealing!
The brother of the wife, who was unable to speak because of her difficult psychological state, says, “Contrary to what is being circulated, Khaled’s head was not cut off or his body was abused, but rather he died as a result of being stabbed directly in the heart. Khaled was never a drug dealer as he advertises, but he may have consumed it in some cases.” Sometimes, that’s how he got to know those involved in his murder.”
The root of the problem was the accusation of the young Turks who deal in drugs, according to the family, to the victim, Khaled, of having reported some of them to the police. “They are three young men who were arrested by the police a week before the crime. But when Khaled received the threatening call, he explained to them that he had nothing to do with reporting their actions to the police and that he was not seeking trouble, but they were not convinced,” says the wife’s brother.
Khaled and his wife lived in Turkey after fleeing the Syrian war since 2015, and there they had their three children, who are 6, 8 and 10 years old. Today, the family lives after his death in fear and a sense of insecurity. The wife’s brother says, “The neighbors warned us that my sister and her children should stay in her house because the complaint against the perpetrator is in her name, and we do not know now how to protect her from the threat, because of course she refuses to drop the case, and insists that the perpetrators be punished.”
Psychological shock and horror!
When the murder occurred, my brother’s wife was watching from the window of the house what happened, which made her suffer from great psychological trauma, says the victim’s older brother, Hossam, who lives in Istanbul, which is hours away from Reyhanli.
He recounts, “I was in my house when my brother’s mother called me to tell me that some young Turks had killed my brother in front of his house. Because of the long distance between Istanbul and Reyhanli, which took 15 hours by car, refugees are prohibited from traveling by plane unless they complete permission procedures from the authorities, which requires two or three days.”
The spokesman explains, “When I arrived, I found that my brother had been transferred to Gaziantep. I went to the hospital and found that an autopsy had been done, but they refused to give me the medical report. After that, we buried my brother and returned to Rehaniyya, and I went to the police station to follow up on the matter. They told me that the arrest had been made.” against the perpetrator, and that they registered my brother’s wife as a plaintiff in the case after taking her statement.”
Hossam demands to this day to withdraw the complaint and register it in his name for fear of his brother’s wife and children from retaliation. He was the one who reported them.”
When asked about the rumors related to his work in the drug trade or abuse, the spokesman confirmed that his brother had never dealt in drugs and that he was working with a butcher and earning a living from his work, but he is not sure that he was consuming from time to time, and perhaps this was the reason for his acquaintance with these young men. . However, he believes that “whatever the reason for his knowledge of them is, nothing justifies their killing him.”
Find family safety!
According to what the older brother of the victim told him, the police assured him that whoever carried out the killing might be prosecuted for 35 years in prison.
“We are thinking of finding a solution for them to leave Turkey completely, out of fear for their safety. Since the night of the incident, people have been mediating to deliver the message that ‘you should drop the invitation in order to avoid other problems’.”
As for human rights and legal support, the spokesman says, “On the Turkish side, no one supported us. Quite the contrary, there is a blackout about a lot of information and details. But there is a Syrian journalist and human rights activist who contacts me for help, and I am waiting for a lawyer to take over the case in order to follow it up before the court so that my brother’s right is not lost.” The perpetrators of the crime will be punished.”
Political insecurity in the Turkish street!
This crime is not the first in Turkey, which has more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees, making it the most welcoming country in the world. It alone hosts more than half of the Syrian refugees who fled outside their country, estimated at 5.6 million.
During this period, Syrians in Turkey are experiencing major problems on several levels, including those related to the security aspect. In addition to problems similar to Khaled’s story, the right-wing rhetoric against refugees is escalating daily. Incitement against refugees has gone beyond political life to reach public life, and incidents that claim the lives of Syrians have increased sharply in recent years.
In 2021, cameras in Ankara documented riots and attacks on many shops run by Syrians and the throwing of stones at the homes they live in, against the background of a quarrel between two Syrian and Turkish groups that led to the stabbing death of a Turkish youth.
Also, in August 2021, a gang destroyed Syrian shops in Ankara, because their owners do not pay taxes and live on government aid, according to the gang’s claim.
And in mid-January 2022, a masked group killed 19-year-old Syrian Nael al-Nayef in Istanbul while he was sleeping in his apartment. In June 2022, the Turkish security forces shot 35 refugees in the city of Osmaniye, because they tried to escape from the refugee shelter. Many refugees also experienced violence after the major earthquakes in February, because they were seen as vandals.
As for the statistics and surveys, it is clear that the rejection of the Syrians has been strengthening since the refugee crisis. A poll conducted by the Turkish “Kadir Has” University showed that the percentage of those who reject the presence of Syrian refugees in the country reached 67 percent in 2019.
