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May 11th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Reyhanli is in Hatay province near the Cilvegozu frontier crossing with Syria.
The adjacent Syrian province of Idlib has experienced heavy fighting between
rebels and the Assad regime, causing thousands of refugees to flee over the
border, raising tensions with the Turks.
After the explosions, Turks vented their anger by vandalising cars with Syrian
number plates and attacking some refugees.
Aref al-Karez, a 22-year-old Syrian, was a few streets away when the first
bomb exploded. He said that some Turks went “crazy”, adding: “Any
people from Turkey that caught a Syrian person, there was a fight.”
Police fired guns in the air as they tried to restore order. Mr Karez said
that he was staying in his apartment in the town and was too afraid to go
out. “No Syrians are walking the roads,” he said. He had planned
to leave Reyhanli and travel to another town, but Mr Karez said that no
Turkish taxi driver would take him.
Mr Karez said that large numbers of people were crossing the border between
Syria and Turkey illegally, suggesting that the attackers might have
followed this route.
“A lot of people get into Turkey – I don’t have a passport, I don’t have
anything, I just go over the border,” he said. “I think
intelligence agents from the regime got into Turkey, took a bomb, and put it
in the cars.”
Residents carry a wounded woman to safety in Reyhanli (AFP)
Another Syrian, who gave his name only as Mahmoud, said that tensions had been
rising between Turks and refugees in Reyhanli for several weeks before the
bombs. A few days ago, a young Syrian man had burned the Turkish national
flag in the town’s main square.
Mahmoud was collecting the names of those killed. The youngest identified
victim was Noora Ladh, a five-year-old Syrian girl who was in the town as a
refugee.
Turkey has openly supported the Syrian rebels, allowing them bases to arm,
train and recruit.
Smoke rises from the site of an explosion in the town of Reyhanli
(Reuters)
In the past, Syrian forces have fired artillery shells and mortar bombs over
the border, killing five Turks in the village of Akcakale last October. If
yesterday’s incident was the work of the Assad regime, however, it would
mark its first use of car bombs.
“We know that the Syrian refugees have become a target of the Syrian
regime,” said Mr Arinc. “Reyhanli was not chosen by coincidence”.
In the past, Turkey has retaliated for cross-border shelling by bombarding
Syrian territory. Mr Arinc promised that Turkey would “do whatever is
necessary” in response to yesterday’s attack.
Ahmet Davutoglu, the foreign minister, reinforced that message during a visit
to Berlin, saying: “There may be those who want to sabotage Turkey’s
peace, but we will not allow that.”
As a member of Nato, Turkey would be entitled to summon the aid of its allies,
including Britain. However, Turkey’s armed forces are far more powerful than
Syria’s.
Turkey is also the target of an insurgency waged by guerrillas from the
Kurdish minority. They have carried out many bombings in the past, raising
the possibility that Kurdish rebels might have planted the latest bombs.
The Syrian National Coalition, an opposition alliance, implicitly blamed
President Assad, saying the “heinous terrorist acts” were designed
to “take revenge on the Turkish people and punish them for their
honourable support for the Syrian people”.
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