The warm Turkish welcome for refugees is ending and Syrians are worried

GAZIANTEP, Turkey (AP) — Turkey gained renown as a haven for refugees by welcoming more than 3 million Syrians fleeing violence between forces from Bashar Assad ’s government and a patchwork of rebel groups.

But the Syrian president’s ouster this month has led many in Turkey to argue that the refugees have no reason to stay, part of the global backlash against migration. Some Syrians are panicking about returning to a devastated nation.

“There’s no work, electricity, or water. There is no leader. Who will it be? I have no idea,” said Mahmut Cabuli, who fled airstrikes by Syrian government forces and violence by rebel groups in his hometown Aleppo a decade ago. “I’m scared and don’t know what the authorities will do.”

Cabuli spent several years in a refugee camp before he found a job at a textile factory in Gaziantep, a southern Turkish city near the Syrian border. After he met another Syrian refugee, they married and had two children.

“My children were born here,” he said. “I am working, thank God. I am happy here. I don’t want to go back now.”

Many Turks baselessly accuse Syrians of taking their jobs and straining health care and other public services. Riots have damaged Syrian-owned shops, homes or cars, including one in July in the central city of Kayseri following allegations that a Syrian refugee sexually assaulted a child. The riots sparked counterprotests in northern Syria.

Turkish authorities said that the alleged perpetrator was arrested and the victim placed under state protection.

“A spark between Syrians and Turkish citizens can immediately cause a big fire, a big flame,” said Umit Yılmaz, the mayor of Sehitkamil, which hosts 450,000 Syrians.

“The Syrians need to be reunited with their homeland immediately,” he said. "I have come to a point where I am even willing to get in my own car and take them away if necessary.”

In 2014, Turkish authorities gave Syrians universal access to health care, education and the right to work by granting them a legal status known as temporary protection.

As a result, Turkey has taken in more Syrian refugees than any other nation — more than 3.8 million at its peak in 2022, or roughly 60% of all the Syrians logged by U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.

But more recently, anti-refugee sentiment has surged as Turkey has grappled with problems including persistent inflation — particularly in food and housing — and with high youth unemployment.

“This prolonged stay under temporary protection must end,” said Azmi Mahmutoglu, spokesman for the Victory Party, a right-wing party that has opposed the presence of Syrians in Turkey and called for their repatriation.

Hundreds of Syrians have gathered at border gates along Turkey’s 911-kilometer (566 mile) frontier with Syria since Assad's fall and the returns are expected to accelerate if Syria becomes stable.

Metin Corabatir, director of the Ankara-based Research Centre on Asylum and Migration, said most of the departures so far appear to be Syrians checking the situation back in Syria before deciding whether to move their families back.

Muhammed Nur Cuneyt, a 24-year-old Syrian who arrived in 2011 from the northern town of Azaz, was eagerly waiting at one gate on Dec. 10, saying he was grateful to Turkey for granting refuge but resented hearing anti-Syrian sentiment as his people fought Assad.

“Some were saying ‘Why are the Syrians here? Why don’t you go back and fight with your nation?’" he said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought ways to encourage the refugees’ voluntary returns — including building housing in Syria close to the Turkish border after Syrian migration helped weaken support for his Justice and Development party.

Erdogan has four more years in office but the main opposition party has a slight lead in polls.

One refugee who returned to Syria said that he had signed a document ending his protected refugee status under Turkish law.

“Would they be allowed to come back to Turkey? Corabatir said. “Our hope is that it will continue.”

This week, UNHCR said it does not believe that conditions to end Syrian’s refugee status have been met and it still thinks they need protection.

But for Huseyin Basut, the Turkish owner of a pet shop in Gaziantep, Turkey has done all that it can for the Syrians.

“We did all we could as a country and as citizens,” said Bayut, 52. “Since the war is over, they should return to their homes, build their homes or whatever they need to do and may God help them.”

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Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press journalist Ayse Wieting contributed from Istanbul.

People hold a banner of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they celebrate the fall of the Syrian government in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

FILE - Residents stand in line to buy bread from a bakery in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

Syrians cross into Syria from Turkey at the Oncupinar border gate, near the town of Kilis, southern Turkey, on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

FILE - An officer checks the papers of a Syrian woman before she crosses into Syria from Turkey, at the Oncupinar border gate, near the town of Kilis, southern Turkey, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

A Syrian woman gives her documents to Turkish gendarmes while crossing into Syria from Turkey at the Cilvegozu border gate near Antakya, southern Turkey, on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Metin Yoksu)

Syrian Mahmut Cabuli, left, works in a textile workshop in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mehmet Guzel)

Syrian Mahmut Cabuli works in a textile workshop in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mehmet Guzel)

Local residents fill plastic bags with bread they bought from a bakery in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

People walk by a destroyed residential building in the Masaken Hanano district in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Syrian families arrive at the Cilvegozu border gate to cross into Syria from Turkey near Antakya, southern Turkey, on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Metin Yoksu)

Syrian families arrive at the Cilvegozu border gate to cross into Syria from Turkey near Antakya, southern Turkey, on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Metin Yoksu)

People gather to celebrate the Syrian government's fall in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Syrian families wait at the Cilvegozu border gate to cross into Syria from Turkey near Antakya, southern Turkey, on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Metin Yoksu)

People gather to celebrate the Syrian government's fall in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Of all the rules in football, Jim Harbaugh considers the obscure fair-catch kick to be his favorite.

The Los Angeles Chargers coach had the opportunity to try one Thursday night for only the second time in his career.

This time, his kicker got three points from one of the most unusual plays in the sport.

Cameron Dicker made the first successful fair-catch kick in the NFL since 1976, connecting from 57 yards right before halftime against the Denver Broncos.

“I’ve been trying to get one of those every game. Cam Dicker stepped up and made it. It was huge and got the momentum back,” Harbaugh said.

Those points began the Chargers' comeback as they rallied for a 34-27 victory, finishing the game on a 24-6 run.

For football obsessives like Harbaugh who relish oddities and unprecedented feats, Dicker's kick was delightful.

The seldom-used rule allows a team that has just made a fair catch to try a free kick for three points. The kick is attempted from the line of scrimmage, and the defenders all must stand 10 yards away.

The play hardly ever happens because teams almost never find themselves in circumstances to make such a kick feasible. Only five NFL teams had previously tried the kick in the 21st century, and nobody had successfully executed it since Ray Wersching did it for the San Diego Chargers 48 years ago.

“It’s cool. I didn’t know that was the case,” Dicker said about accomplishing the rare milestone. “It was fun to go out there. It was fun to be in that scenario. With the penalty, I thought it would happen."

The Chargers seized the opportunity created when Denver's Tremon Smith committed fair-catch interference on what would have been the final play of the first half when Los Angeles' Derius Davis attempted to field a punt at the Chargers 38.

Smith said he was “well aware” of the fair-catch kick rule when the Chargers subsequently lined up for it.

“I’ve been playing a long time,” Smith added. “It’s just a dumb penalty. ... The returner did a good job of selling it. He knows he’s running into me, even though he wasn’t going to catch the ball. But like I said, dumb penalty.”

The flag moved the ball to the Denver 47 for an untimed down, and Harbaugh took a timeout before electing to try the fair-catch kick.

With J.K. Scott holding the ball, Dicker comfortably booted it through the uprights.

Dicker said special teams coach Ryan Ficken goes over the play often during the season, and that they practice it sometimes on Fridays. Harbaugh also credited Ficken, who brought it up again during the meetings leading up to this game.

“Looking over at (Denver’s) sideline, it was funny. They were confused what was going on. We talk about it every week, so it was normal for us,” Dicker said.

Plenty of the Broncos said they actually knew what was happening, and they were disappointed to be on the wrong side of history.

“It’s something we talk about in our special teams group, and it’s one of those situations you go through in training camp,” Denver receiver Marvin Mims said. “So we all knew what was going to happen, and they executed to perfection.”

Dicker’s 57-yarder also was the longest fair-catch kick in NFL history, besting Paul Hornung’s 52-yarder for Green Bay in 1964.

The most recent fair-catch kick in the NFL was attempted in 2019, when Carolina’s Joey Slye missed from 60 yards in a game played in London.

Harbaugh also attempted it with the San Francisco 49ers in 2013, but Phil Dawson missed from 71 yards right before halftime.

“I wanted it so bad that I tried it,” Harbaugh said when looking back. “I was really happy, too, because Coach Ficken went over it this week. We took a timeout and got things dialed in. It was going to be on their side of the 50. It was our chance."

The play is extremely rare because most fair catches occur well outside of normal field goal range. The Broncos' punt would have stranded the Chargers beyond Dicker's considerable range, but Smith's penalty created a rare opportunity — and Dicker didn't miss.

“I was definitely confused,” Chargers edge rusher Joey Bosa said. “I was ready to get in the locker room, but I’m happy we had a shot. I was just joking that you can play for 20 years and still have no idea what’s going on on the field. So it was a good moment. It was an important swing in momentum.”

Wersching, who kicked for the Chargers and 49ers during 15 NFL seasons, made a 45-yard fair-catch kick at the halftime gun for San Diego against Buffalo on Nov. 21, 1976.

“It doesn’t happen much,” Denver coach Sean Payton said. “We practice it all the time. In that situation, the penalty put them in field goal position, so it’s disappointing.”

AP sports writer Joe Reedy contributed to this report.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh walks on the field before an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)