Syrian journalist detained in Turkey over banana scandal is released

A Syrian journalist in Turkey, who was arrested by the authorities and threatened to be deported over a scandal about bananas, has now been released, following an outcry against his sentence.

The journalist, Majed Shamaa, who worked for Orient News, was arrested by Turkish police last month over a video of him buying bananas in a secretive manner and hiding them away.

It came after a disgruntled Turkish man was filmed shouting at Syrian refugees about how they are able to buy bananas, while average Turks allegedly cannot during the current economic hardships the country is facing.

That rant was followed by a series of controversial social media posts made by several Syrians in Turkey, showing them buying and eating bananas, as a way of mocking the man’s tirade. At least seven Syrians were arrested, including Shamaa, and were ordered to be deported and sent to a repatriation centre in Gaziantep province bordering Syria.

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According to his lawyer, Mehmet Ali Hartavi, who spoke to the news agency, Reuters, Shamaa has been released after fears of his fate in Bashar Al-Assad’s Syria were expressed by rights groups. Following his release yesterday, he was set to return to Istanbul today.

Hartavi also said that Shamaa, who has lived in Turkey for seven years, did not intend to mock Turks with his video, but only intended to address the concerns of Syrians in a humorous manner. The fate of the other Syrians arrested by Turkish authorities and set to be deported has not yet been reported.

The incident comes amid the ongoing economic crisis and increase in food prices that Turkey has been undergoing over the past year, which many Turks—especially the right-wing ultranationalists— blame on refugees from Syria and elsewhere, who number around 4 million in the country.

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