Turkey arrests 14 Syrians over “insulting” Turkish flag in northern Syria
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Turkish Intelligence and the Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), arrested on Friday 14 people charged with insulting the Turkish flag in northern Syria.
North Press correspondent cited a source of the Military Police in the city of al-Bab, northern Syrian as saying that the Turkish Intelligence in coordination with the al-Amshat faction arrested 14 people including the 14-year-old child Fidaa al-Khaled.
The correspondent added that the Turkish authorities forced the arrestees to kiss the Turkish flag and apologize to Turkey.
On July 2, Turkish Minister of Justice Yilmaz Tunc announced launching investigation following what he described the insult of the Turkish flag by Syrians in areas in northern and northwestern Syria.
This came after the people of the SNA-held areas in Aleppo countryside took to the streets in anti-Turkey protests to condemn the racist attacks on the Syrian refugees in Turkey.
The protesters smashed the trucks and vehicles that held Turkish car number plates and burned the Turkish flags.
Turkish forces opened fire on the protesters, killing five protesters and injuring 40 others.
On July 1, thousands of residents in the towns and cities of al-Atarib and Kafr Nouran, west of Aleppo, and in Afrin and Azaz, north of Aleppo, and in al-Mastouma village in Idlib took to the streets to condemn Turkish recent racist acts against Syrian refugees in Turkey’s central city of Kayseri where a group of nationalist Turks attacked and set fire to houses and property of the Syrian refugees in the city.