Turkey, like Syria’s other neighbors, is increasingly worried that the conflict will inflame border areas, where tensions among various groups are deepening amid the flood of traumatized Syrian refugees.

Image Reyhanli is in an ethnically and religiously mixed region. Credit... The New York Times

The reaction to the bombings in Reyhanli was a reminder of how quickly fissures could open. In a predominantly Sunni town that was seen as sympathetic to Syria’s Sunni-led opposition and the plight of those who have been displaced, some residents lashed out at Syrian refugees, tens of thousands of whom have settled in the town over the past two years.

Some youths attacked cars with Syrian license plates, and Syrians spent a second day hidden indoors in fear. Yet it was not difficult to find Turks who said the government’s Syria policy had caused the violence.

Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the country needed to be “extremely calm in the face of provocations that are aimed at dragging us into the bloody quagmire in Syria.”

He added, “Today, we have to be one.”

Analysts said such appeals amounted to recognition of Turkey’s heightened risk of communal strife. “There is always a danger of events unfolding into something bigger,” said Ilter Turan, a professor of political science at Istanbul Bilgi University. “Both in terms of avoiding any possible reactions against Syrian refugees, and to prevent any negative interaction between ethnically and religiously diverse groups, the government used all possible tools to calm people.”