Fight between Syrians, Turks over stray dog leaves two dead in central Turkey

KONYA

Two people were killed and another three were wounded in a fight between Syrians and Turks which erupted over the kicking of a stray dog in the Beyşehir district of the Central Anatolian province of Konya late on July 9. The fight started after Mehmet Bayraktar, 18, saw four Syrians kicking a stray dog and warned them not to do so at around 10 p.m., Doğan News Agency reported. 

“Why did you kick the dog?” Bayraktar asked the group of Syrians, before the confrontation escalated into a fight involving knives. 

Bayraktar, who was working in a gun factory, and four Syrians, who were identified as İbrahim, 21, Kasım, 20, Abdullah Muhammed, 26, and Ahmed Sadi, 22, were wounded in the fight and taken to Beyşehir State Hospital. Bayraktar, who suffered a stab wound to his heart, and İbrahim died during surgery, while a wounded Syrian was taken to Konya for treatment. 

Bayraktar’s relatives gathered in front of the hospital after hearing about the incident intending to attack the wounded Syrians, but were prevented by the police. Reinforcements from the gendarmerie were called to the scene after the number of people in front of the hospital swelled. 

The police intervened with tear gas due to the crowd’s insistence of entering the hospital and attacking the Syrians. Further police reinforcements and riot police were called to the scene from central Konya and security officers took precautions in front of the emergency ward of the hospital. 

The police decided to send the two other wounded Syrians to another hospital in Konya due to concerns over their security. However, the crowd would not allow the Syrians to be taken out of the hospital, thus the police attempted to transfer the wounded in a civilian-plated police car waiting at the back door.

The crowd noticed that the Syrians were being taken out the back and started to kick and punch the police car. The police intervened once again with tear gas, and a person affected by the gas was hospitalized. 

The wounded Syrians were taken out of the hospital and transferred to an ambulance outside of the district, before being taken to a hospital in Konya. 

The crowd outside the hospital remained until the early hours of July 10, as Beyşehir District Governor Muzaffer Başıbüyük and Provincial Police Chief Mevlüt Demir visited the hospital to make observations. 

The police took further security measures for the funeral of Bayraktar on July 10.