In the southern Turkish province of Mersin, unknown persons marked the houses of Alevis with crosses. The incident occurred in the Batıkent neighborhood in the central district of Yenişehir where a total of five houses belonging to Alevi families were daubed with a red X.

While the police conducted an investigation at the scene, the Governor’s Office stated that a person had been taken into custody in connection with the incident. While the governorate argued that the incident resulted from personal hostility, acts such as these rightly cause fears among the Alevis as they have been linked to pogroms and massacres against the pre-Islamic religious community many times in the history of the Turkish republic.