Dual citizenship Syrians might not vote in Turkey 2023 election
3 Min Read
Turkish nationals are carrying out widespread campaigns against Syrian people who have Turkish citizenship to prevent them from voting in the upcoming presidential election.
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Syrian refugee children at a camp in southeast Turkey in 2019 (The New York Times)
Turkish netizens launched a few days ago a racist campaign on social media aimed at Syrian nationals holding Turkish citizenship from voting in the upcoming 2023 presidential election, depriving them of the constitutional right of representation.
The number of Syrians who have Turkish citizenship is over 195,000 out of more than 3,700,000 Syrians who live in Turkey, the Turkish ministry of interior reported previously.
In the latest data made public, the interior ministry said the majority of refugees live in Istanbul, followed by Gaziantep, Hatay, Urfa, Adana, and Mersin.
The hashtag "#SuriyelilerOyKullanmasın" (Syrians Do Not Vote), launched by Turkish Twitter users, came in fourth place in the platform's trends. Turkish netizens used the hashtag to call on the government to prevent Syrians from voting; otherwise, they would target them.
Syrians bearing Turkish citizenship have reported that the campaigns against them started months ago, and they have seen an escalation as of late after reports said they would participate in the upcoming presidential election. They also said there were brutal campaigns against the Arabic language after an old video resurfaced showing voters how to vote in Arabic.
The fate of Syrian refugees "is on the line" in light of an intense political situation in Turkey ahead of the presidential and parliamentary election, Turkish media sources have reported.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to be in a tough spot that could force him to expel Syrian refugees. This was proven in the latest anti-Syrian campaigns used to call for the expulsion of refugees. Ankara could comply with the demands in a bid to alleviate some of the pressure mounting against the ruling Justice and Development Party.
The activists called for expelling even legal Syrian refugees who were granted special status on Turkish soil.
Despite the Turkish government's attempts to mitigate the mounting pressure over the refugee issue by expelling large groups of Syrian refugees, dissidents and opposition activists did not see the expulsions as enough. They stressed that Syrians who were granted Turkish citizenship posed a real threat to the upcoming presidential election and that their participation in them could lead to them becoming a target and cause more bloodshed in the country.
