A Turkish entrepreneur has hit back at the racists who regularly make his life and that of his staff hell - and decided to expose them. Turhan Anik said he is sick to death of the drunks who regularly verbally abuse him and his staff at his takeaways and restaurant in Falmouth and now enough is enough.
"We have to deal with incidents of racism and abuse two to three nights a week. It's constant. But we've got it up to here," he told us. "We shouldn't have to deal with this. It's our business. It's our staff. We pay our taxes, we pay business rate. Since Covid it's a lot tougher on the high street. A lot of shops are struggling. We try to keep going like other businesses. We deserve as much respect as everyone else."
Turhan, whose family collectively own six food businesses in Falmouth and employ 50 or so staff, said a minority of people think it is acceptable to be rude or hurl abuse at him or his employees just because of their religion or skin colour.
He said the stuff thrown at him ranges from the usual racist tropes such as "Turkish bastard", "Paki bastard", "go back to your country" to the frankly vile "Muslim c**t".
"If you speak like that or are rude in Warrens or Rowe's you'll be asked to leave and you won't get served your food," Turhan added. "But we'll still serve you your food and try to be polite and look after you. People may think it's an easy job and we're making lots of money. But it is hard work and these people have no respect."
The businessman, who has been in Falmouth for 13 years and was in Truro for five years before that, decided to speak out after a video emerged of a brawl breaking out outside his takeaway Chicken Point in the run-up to Christmas which showed a man dressed as Santa slumped on the ground getting kicked in the face. He has now revealed that the Santa man was an instigator of the violence spree.
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Turhan said the incident happened outside his takeaway after closing time when a group of seven men became violent and aggressive towards two of his friends who were outside.
He said the group of louts were built like rugby players and were very drunk. They apparently tried to get food in the kebab shop next to the Salt and Vinegar chippy round the corner, which is part of the family business, but started throwing racist insults at the staff. They were asked to leave politely and without violence and the staff managed to evict them from the premises.
It was about 6pm or 7pm that evening and the group proceeded up Market Street and are understood to have been kicked out of a pub because of their behaviour. It was then around 11.30pm or midnight when the group of drunken louts came back to the Kiligrew Street area and kicked off.
Turhan said that the group then started being violent towards his friends, with the man dressed as Santa allegedly being the instigator of it all in terms of the verbal and physical violence.
It was when he is alleged to have grabbed one of Turhan's friends and held him in a chokehold that members of the public intervened to separate those involved and his friends started defending themselves.
"My friend thought he was going to die because he couldn't breathe," said Turhan. "When he was being held by the neck, he was punched by two others in the group. He was covered in blood. What should the other people have done? Leave him to die or lose an eye. They just defended themselves."
Turhan said that one of the men in the group begged him later not to report the incident to the police or they would lose their jobs, and he hasn't. Similarly he has not reported other incidents when his windows have been smashed or his staff have been verbally abused.
"Why should we have to deal with this?" he added. "Because of our skin colour or religion we get this. It's unacceptable. We deserve better than that. I think there is a hidden racism problem in Cornwall. It's time it's taken more seriously and dealt with. We've have had enough."
The brawl before Christmas is still being investigated by Devon and Cornwall Police and anybody who witnessed the incident or who may have information that could help enquiries is asked to call 101 or via or the police website quoting 50240320042
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