Business not as usual near Syria, but that’s not the point
Sitting on a stool in front of his garment shop in downtown Gaziantep in expectation of more shoppers during the weekend, Mehmet Arpacı realizes that there will be far fewer Syrians coming in than, say, just more than a year ago. Yet what he complains about the most is not the loss of business because of the ongoing violence in Syria but that the neighboring Syrians — men and women, children and the elderly, civilians after all — are being cruelly slaughtered by an oppressive regime there.
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Only a few kilometers away from the border with Syria, people seem to have a very calm life in Kilis province, although life looked much harder here compared to neighboring Gaziantep. A lower level of development and per capita wealth were not difficult to be immediately seen after arrival. One might think that maybe poorer people — for whom border trade with and regular visits from Syria were more vital than for the wealthier Gaziantep residents — would give a different response to questions regarding the impact of the fighting in Syria on their lives. But all such questions only spark more anger against Assad and his violent crackdown on the unrest, with people sometimes even declining to speak of their own well-being as, they say, this would be only disrespectful to the suffering of their neighbors. It looks like the people in Turkey living close to the Syrian territory are ready to grin and bear the impact of the fighting in the south for a while longer. What they cannot bear, however, is the violence — particularly against civilians, whose only guilt was to belong to a different interpretation of Islam or aspire to live in a democratic country.
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