Turkish president Erdogan: attackers of refugees, hijab-wearing women should be punished

RELIGIONS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said people who attack refugees and hijab-wearing women in public spaces would be ‘held to account’.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken aim at people who carry out religious and racially motivated attacks in Turkey, saying on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that they would be “held to account”.

In a tweet published on Tuesday evening, the Turkish president said that there had been increasing “harassment” of people in shops, buses, and other public spaces.

Erdogan was referring to refugees and other foreigners, as well as Turks wearing religious garments such as the hijab headscarf.

“Every person in Turkey, whether a citizen or a foreigner, has the right to live in peace and express their opinion,” the Islamist-leaning Turkish leader added.

“Some people, because they are foreign or speak another language or wear the hijab suffer harassment or beating in Turkey. We cannot and will not accept this in Turkey and we will hold [the attackers] to account.”

“The era of oppressors who see this country as the property of a small minority is over,” Erdogan said, adding that there were people with “a fascist mentality” in Turkey.

Turkey currently hosts around 3.7 million refugees, most of them from neighbouring Syria, and they have been the target of increasing xenophobia and attacks in recent years.