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Turkey has detained hundreds of people after two nights of violent protests targeting the country’s massive Syrian population. 

All around 475 persons have been detained just after “provocative actions were carried out from Syrians previous night time in towns across our country”, Turkish interior minister Ali Yerlikaya claimed on Tuesday.

The violence started on Sunday in central Kayseri province right after a Syrian national was accused of sexually harassing a boy or girl. Kayseri’s main general public prosecutor opened a formal investigation into the suspect, explained only by the initials “IA”, who was arrested.

Anti-Syrian violence distribute to other provinces including Hatay and Gaziantep, alongside the southern border with Syria, on Monday evening. Nearby media showed scenes of properties and automobiles set ablaze by large mobs.

Immigration has grow to be one of Turkey’s most divisive concerns, with economic troubles this kind of as high inflation increasing tensions. According to official figures, Turkey is home to 3.1mn refugees who fled Syria all through its a lot more than decade-long civil war.

The protests occur at a time when Ankara has mentioned it is open to normalising relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that ended up weakened when Turkey backed rebel teams in its southern neighbour.

Counter-protests erupted in north-west Syria, elements of which are under Turkish regulate, on Monday. Various people today had been killed in armed clashes in between protesters and Turkish soldiers, in accordance to area stories and Syrian civil culture groups. The Economical Instances could not independently verify the variety of people killed in the unrest. 

Hundreds of protesters tried using to reduce Turkish flags across cities in Syria’s north-west, video clips on social media confirmed, while border crossings and Turkish cars crossing into Syria have been also targeted. The office environment of the Turkish governor in Afrin was attacked, according to area media. World-wide-web outages had been described in significant pockets of the Turkish-managed north-west.

Protests had been also claimed in rebel-held Idlib, also in north-west Syria but outside of Ankara’s manage.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed, with out proof, that opposition functions and a Kurdish separatist group that has fought a a long time-lengthy insurgency had incited the violence: “We will not succumb to dislike speech, fascism and provocations,” he stated on Tuesday night, including that his nation “know(s) how to crack the fingers that get to for the oppressed who choose refuge [in Turkey].”

Authorities clamped down on the spread of facts about the unrest in Kayseri. A court docket in the town imposed reporting limitations equally on the investigation into the suspect in the boy or girl abuse circumstance and the broader protests, state media described.

Govt censors have also limited accessibility to well known social media platforms in Kayseri, according to impartial net observatory NetBlocks.

Erdoğan has faced mounting strain from opposition politicians in excess of the deal he struck with the EU in 2016 to residence Syrian refugees heading for Europe in trade for €6bn. The bloc topped up the programme with an supplemental €3bn in 2021.

The Turkish leader signalled last week that he would be amenable to a rapprochement with Assad, expressing the neighbours had “no reason” not to normalise relations. The two leaders fell out adhering to the outbreak in 2011 of the Syrian civil war, with Turkey backing rebel groups and taking manage of north-western locations in an try to end the conflict breaching its borders.

With Iran and Russia’s backing, Assad later regained regulate of about two-thirds of the state.

Following the collapse of Russian-led talks to mend Syria-Turkey ties in 2022, during which anti-Turkey protests also erupted in rebel-held locations of north-west Syria, Iraq has been mediating involving Ankara and Damascus for immediate talks to resume.