First Festival in Reyhanlı

This was the first Ramadan celebration after the bombings of May 11. People paid their respects at the graves of those who died in the explosions and also visited the victims’ relatives.
 
Hosts offered kahke and kömbe to their visitors. Weddings, postponed because of the explosions and the Eid al-Fitr festival, were held on the second day of the celebrations. The sound of bombs exploding in Syria caused mild vibrations in downtown Reyhanlı during the festival. The inhabitants are now familiar with the noise of explosions. It doesn’t concern them. The sound of Kalashnikovs, fired on August nights, mixes with Arabic songs. While the weddings were being held in Reyhanlı, a forest fire burned in the Amanos Mountains. It is argued that the fire was started deliberately to gain rights to the forest’s chromite mines. Will those responsible be identified and punished, or will the incident be covered up? Time will tell.
 
Reyhanlı is closely related to Syrian affairs. The violence that was done to Syrians after the explosion is forgotten. What remains are the Turkish flags displayed in homes and workplaces. New businesses were opened in place of the destroyed Syrian stores. Syrians have become entrepreneurs in almost all sectors. They opened new restaurants, coffee shops, factories, delis and food stores. Syrians who acclimatized to Turkey in Reyhanlı started to find employment in different parts of Turkey such as Adana, Gaziantep, Mersin, Izmir, Bursa, İstanbul, Antalya and Bodrum, working in the tourism, agriculture and industrial sectors. New refugees arrived in Reyhanlı, replacing those Syrians who left the city after the explosion. These newcomers have to live in terrible conditions. Many of them are forced to beg for food. The Syrians receive 15 TL daily for agricultural labor and 20-25 TL for construction work. They work 10-12 hours a day in restaurants and factories for only 400-500 TL a month. Those who find a job consider themselves lucky. A free meal was served to the Syrians during Ramadan. These tents must stay and free meals should be offered year-round, as the Syrians are in dire hunger and poverty.
 
Nearly 70,000 Syrians live in rural areas of Reyhanlı. The local people feel sympathy towards the refugees, but they are uncomfortable about having to host so many people. They ask the public authorities to share their burden. Fear of the explosion still lingers in peoples’ minds. There are rumors that there will be more explosions in the city. This affects their sympathy towards the Syrians. There are also fears of social explosions. The soldiers of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) who were walking the streets in uniform last year now prefer civilian outfits. Young people on the streets of Reyhanlı who say they came from Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Chechnya, Dagestan and Central Asia cause suspicion and concern.
 
The borders are porous in Reyhanlı. Families cross the borders without any interference. People frequently cross the border near Asker Çayırı and Beşaslan villages. Nobody knows who crosses the border and why. Are they villagers? Are they smugglers? Are they secret agents? Are they terrorists? No one questions their identity. The FSA advances in the mountains surrounding Latakia while Bashar al-Assad’s forces march towards Idlib, located on Hatay’s southern border. The Turkish soldiers do not take any action against illegal crossings. They only search the belongings of those crossing the border. Are we trying to prevent smuggling through these palliative measures? Smuggling has become institutionalized in the border villages. The people of Reyhanlı feel hopeless about Syria. A man in Beşaslan village says: “Everything is ruined in Syria. Things will be never the same again. Now Reyhanlı is also being destroyed. But we do not realize it.”