Governor of Turkey’s southeastern province bans protest against Syrians

KİLİS – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

The governor of the southeastern Turkish province Şanlıurfa has said he will not allow a group that was allegedly planning a protest against Syrians in the city to pursue the march. 

“A small minority that does not represent our nation is supposedly going to hold a demonstration by organizing via social media. I am saying right now, as the governor, I have banned this demonstration,” Governor İzzettin Küçük said on May 14.

Küçük said the Intelligence and Anti-Cyber Crime branches had determined there was a group organized against Syrians via social media, adding that the branches had found the organizers of the group.

“The ones who make such communications should know that they are committing a crime of playing with the feelings of hate and discord within the nation … I will expose these people in public. They have committed a crime; we will do what is necessary,” Küçük said. 

Meanwhile, 11 Syrians, who were wounded in a bomb attack in a Syrian town close to the Turkish border, were brought to Kilis for treatment. Two have succumbed to their injuries at the hospital. 

Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacked Aleppo’s Mera village, which is under the control of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) late May 13, with bombs loaded on a vehicle, wounding many. 

Eleven of the wounded Syrians were brought to the Öncüpınar border gate with private vehicles, from which they were taken to the Kilis State Hospital on ambulances. While two of the Syrians have died from injuries sustained, the seriously wounded were transferred to hospitals in Gaziantep, a nearby province.