Riots breaks out against Turkish presence in Syria as Ankara mulls detente with Assad

Turkey close its border crossings with Syria on Tuesday and shut down communications in its zone of control in the country after at least four people were killed in riots in the area against the Turkish tutelage.

The unrest, which began on Monday, had tested the limits of the Turkish reach in Syria, as racist attacks mount on Syrian refugees inside Turkey. A growing possibility that Ankara could turning against its opposition to President Bashar Al Assad, 13 years into the Syrian civil war, have also fueled the outrage.

"The liberated areas depends on these crossing for survival and it will be a disaster if Turkey sustains the closure," an official in an international humanitarian organisation, based near the Al Bab crossing in norther Syria, told The National.

The Turkish linked internet networks in the ares were shut down in retriution for attacks inthe last 24 hours against the Turkish garrisson positions, the official said.

Syrians also attacked trucks carrying Turkish goods at a new corssing that opened last month between teh Turkish zone of control abd areas with the regime of Bashar Al Assad. The crossing opened as part of preparations for a possible rapproachment between Turkish President Tayyib Erdogan and Preident Bahsar Al Assad, members of the Syrian opposition said.

Turkey starting carvig out a zone in Syria five years ago, joining Russia, Iran and the United States, as the dominent powers in the fragmented coutry.

Members of Turkish miliotary and

At least four people have been killed in protests against occupying Turkish forces in the north of Syria, which began after violent anti-Syrian riots in Turkey.

The unrest appears to have begun after locals in Turkey's Kayseri province accused a Syrian man of abusing a Turkish girl.

Anti-Syrian sentiment has risen in Turkey in recent years, as the refugee population – almost entirely Syrians fleeing the uprising and civil war that erupted there in 2011, has swelled to more than three million. Some Turks believe Syrian refugees are taking Turkish jobs.

In the riots, residents in a district in central Turkey set shops owned by Syrians on fire.

Nearly 70 people were arrested in connection with the rioting, which caused anger in Turkish-occupied parts of northern Syria.

In Afrin and Jarablus in northern Syria, which were formerly under Kurdish control, armed locals carried out protests and clashed with Turkish forces.

In Atarib, northern Aleppo, protesters appeared to have taken over a fortified Turkish checkpoint.

Some of the protesters reportedly waved the Syrian opposition flag, which was flown by secular rebel groups following the uprising against President Bashar Al Assad in 2011, until extremists dominated the rebellion.

At the city of Al Bab on the Syrian border, AFP reported that Turkish lorries were shot at.

Demonstrations “accompanied by acts of violence” spread in “large areas” of the Turkey-controlled border strip, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor.

Protests also spread to parts of the nearby rebel-held Idlib region, which is controlled by the Al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, the Observatory said.

Some protesters took down Turkish flags, with border guards firing at demonstrators who attempted to storm the Jarablus border crossing, it added.

A Turkish lorry burns during protests in Al Bab, in the opposition-held region of Aleppo in northern Syria. AFP

Protester Adel Al Faraj told AFP he took to the streets in solidarity with “our Syrian brothers in Turkey”.

“Our people fled from [Syrian President] Bashar Al Assad only to be oppressed in Turkey,” he said, urging Ankara to do more to stop violence against Syrians. On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated the possibility meeting with Mr Al Assad, saying it was “not impossible”.

The unrest follows reported clashes in Afrin between Ahrar Al Sham, an Islamist militia backed by Turkey, and Jabhat Shamiya, another Turkish-backed group.

Since occupying parts of northern Syria during the war on ISIS – with Turkish incursions between 2016 and 2019 – Turkey has backed former Syrian rebel groups in a coalition known as the Syrian National Army.

The primary role of the SNA has been to police a Turkish-controlled buffer zone and take part in operations against Syrian Kurdish militias.