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Turkish opposition believed to be behind anti-Syria refugee video game

The game, available on smartphones, focuses on throwing refugees who are trying to enter an unspecified country into trucks to take them back to the country they came from.

May 25, 2023 at 10:36 am

As part of racist electoral campaigns being witnessed in Turkiye ahead of Sunday’s presidential election, Gacrux Game Studio launched the Zafer Tourism game, which is named after the extremist Turkish Zafer (Victory) Party.

The game, available on smartphones, focuses on throwing refugees who are trying to enter an unspecified country into trucks to take them back to the country they came from.

The game description reads: “Protect your borders, do not let them pass, focus on the target and go, leave the rest to the trucks. Run the refugees over with the trucks before they cross the border, throw them in the air, and keep trying to stop them from crossing the border. Don’t allow them to occupy the country and protect your flag.”

Players get points for each refugee they throw towards the trucks, if they decide to leave the refugees alone, their country flag changes to the flag of the refugees, indicating that the refugees are changing the identity of the country. Sources noted that players lose all of their points if a certain number of refugees are allowed to enter.

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Human rights activist on Syrian asylum issues, Taha Al-Ghazi, told Al-Quds Al-Arabi: “We are in the process of filing a lawsuit in cooperation with human rights organisations against the [Victory] party and its president.”

“This game is an advanced stage of hateful behaviour against refugees, and its danger is that it targets Turkish youth, thus creating hostile feelings against refugees,” he added.

Yesterday, Umit Ozdag, the leader of the Victory Party, threatened Syrian refugees, after announcing his support for the Nation Alliance candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the second round of the presidential elections. The agreement between them provides for the deportation of refugees, especially Syrians, to their country within a maximum of one year. If the opposition wins, Ozdag will be appointed minister of the interior.

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