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ANKARA, April 18-- Amid current economic difficulties in Turkey, the Syrian refugees in the country are facing rising resentment, if not hostility, from the local population, especially following the recent local elections. There are more than 3.63 million Syrians living in Turkey, most of them are still registered as refugees, while only a small proportion of them, or 55,000, have been granted Turkish citizenship. The Syrians are not very welcome by local Turkish communities in some cities, not only for cultural differences, but also due to the economic challenges. Tanju Ozcan, the newly elected mayor of Bolu province in western Turkey, caused controversy recently as he immediately delivered his pre-election promises to cut off municipal financial aid to the Syrian refugees and refused to grant municipal permit to open businesses for the Syrians and other asylum seekers. Ozcan is a member of the main opposition People's Republican Party (CHP), which won several big cities, including the capital Ankara, in the March 31 local elections. There are about 12,000 foreigners in the city, of whom only 2,379 are Syrians, according to official data, so the mayor's move will have negligible effect on the Syrian community. However, Ekrem Imamoglu, the CHP mayoral candidate for Istanbul, said that "we want Syrians to go back." This could have serious effect on the 555,000 registered Syrians living in the city. | 
