https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7307-6589
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ABSTRACT
This study contextualizes the foreign policy strategies of Turkey and its responses to the two most recent mass refugee flows from Iraq (1989–1991) and Syria (since 2011). Considering migration policy as part of foreign policy, we argue that the foreign policy strategy of a receiving country toward a refugee-sending country is decisive in determining policies adopted for refugees. While the cases stress humanitarian need as a legitimizing tool to mobilize international coalitions to establish safe havens, the Iraqi case, however, did not correspond with any goal of using the refugee inflow to affect Iraq’s domestic policies. Therefore, the strategy focused on strict containment of refugees at camps and repatriation. In the Syrian case, the strategies simultaneously utilize idealistic and pragmatic paradigms to assert Turkey’s involvement in matters in Syria, while maintaining an emphasis on security that has become exclusionary over time.
KEYWORDS:
Acknowledgments
Data for this article was collected as part of the project ‘Turkey’s state policies during mass refugee inflows: The cases of Bulgaria (1989), Iraq (1991) and Syria (2011–2013)’ funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK). Both authors would also like to thank Ahmet İçduygu, Mustafa Mikdat Yıldırım, Şuhnaz Yılmaz Özbağcı, Judith Woods, anonymous reviewers, and the editor for their constructive comments and recommendations on earlier versions of this study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Birce Altıok is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of International Relations and the coordinator of the Migration Research Center at Koç University (MiReKoc). She received her MA in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University and BS in Global and International Affairs from Binghamton (SUNY) and Boğaziçi University. She is currently working on her dissertation at Koç University on refugee activism with a special focus on state-civil society relations. She has publications on foreign policy, social cohesion and civil society. Her research interests include forced migration, refugee activism and state policies.
Salih Tosun is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Virginia. He received his MA in the Department of International Relations at Koç University and his BA in Political Science and International Relations from Boğaziçi University. He has worked in projects on forced displacement and integration in Turkey and volunteered at non-governmental organizations in China, Sweden, and Kenya. He has publications on the role of civil society organizations in refugee integration in Turkey. His research interests include forced migration, civil society, and political and cultural sociology.
Notes
1 In this paper, the term ‘refugee inflow’ refers to people who flee their country en masse. A mass inflow is defined as occurring over a relatively short period of time, with large numbers of people fleeing their place of residence. Additionally, while we use the term ‘refugee,’ we should note that Syrians and Iraqis are not considered refugees in Turkey as they arrived en masse, and Turkey maintains the ‘geographical limitation’ framework of the 1951 Convention. This keeps Syrians under a ‘temporary protection’ status and therefore hinders their ability to acquire permanent settlement in Turkey.
2 Papademetriou and Miller, “The Unavoidable Issue.”
3 See Bagdonas, “Reading Turkey’s Foreign Policy.”
4 Data obtained from a research project funded by TÜBITAK, see acknowledgements.
5 The newspapers covered are the following: Hürriyet, Sabah, Cumhuriyet, Ortadoğu, and Milli Gazete.
6 Bennett and Checkel, Process Tracing.
7 We excluded the Bulgarian mass influx of 1989, as the Bulgarians were deemed to be of Turkish descent and belong to Turkish culture (soydaş) under the Settlement Law.
8 Betts and Loescher, Refugees in International Relations; Betts, Forced Migration and Global Politics; and Gökalp-Aras and Mencütek, “From Assertive to Opportunist Usage.”
9 Weiner, Global Migration Crisis; Crisp, “A New Asylum Paradigm?”; and Milner, Politics of Asylum in Africa.
10 Betts, Forced Migration and Global Politics; Betts, Global Migration Governance, and Koslowski, Global Mobility Regimes.
11 Mertus, “The Post-Cold War Refugee Regime,” 336.
12 Jacobsen, “Factors Influencing the Policy Responses.”
13 Özçürümez and Hammer, “Influence and Impact.”
14 Mitchell, “International Migration”; Loescher, “Refugees and Asylum Dilemma”; and Jacobsen, “Factors Influencing the Policy Responses.”
15 Zolberg, Suhrke, and Aguayo, “Escape from Violence”; Loescher, “Refugees and Asylum Dilemma”; and Jacobsen, “Factors Influencing the Policy Responses.”
16 Zolberg, Suhrke, and Aguayo, “Escape from Violence,” 273.
17 Loescher and Scanlan, “Human Rights and Haitian Refugees” and Zolberg, Suhrke, and Aguayo, “Escape from Violence.”
18 Papademetriou and Miller, “The Unavoidable Issue”; Mitchell, “International Migration”; Weiner and Munz, “Migrants, Refugees and Foreign Policy”; and Greenhill, Weapons of Mass Migration.
19 Papademetriou and Miller, “The Unavoidable Issue,” 165–82.
20 Mitchell, “International Migration,” 687, and Korkut, “Pragmatism or Policy Change.”
21 Teitelbaum, “Immigration, Refugees and Foreign Policy.”
22 Ibid., 437.
23 Tsourapas, “Making Diplomacy.”
24 Ibid., 441.
25 Greenhill, Weapons of Mass Migration, 13.
26 Gökalp-Aras and Mencütek, “From Assertive to Opportunist Usage.”
27 Ibid., 100–1.
28 Ibid., 103.
29 Ibid., 95.
30 Gökalp-Aras and Mencütek, “Evaluation of Irregular Migration,” 64.
31 Ibid., 85–6.
32 The Council of Europe only asked Turkey to lift its geographical limitation to the Geneva Convention and requested it not adopt discriminatory policies based on refugee ethnicity.
33 İçduygu and Keyman, “Globalization, Security, and Migration.”
34 Murinson, “The Strategic Depth Doctrine,” and Grigoriadis, “The Davutoğlu Doctrine.”
35 Altunışık, “Worldviews and Turkish Foreign Policy.”
36 TOBB, “Türkiye ve Irak.”
37 Ibid.
38 Interview #1 with a former UN officer, Istanbul, February 27, 2018.
39 Kut, “The Contours of Turkish Foreign Policy,” 10.
40 Hale, “The Middle East and the Gulf Crisis,” 682.
41 İçduygu and Sirkeci, Cumhuriyet Dönemi Göç Hareketleri.
42 Ibid., 265–6.
43 Kaynak, Iraklı Sığınmacılar ve Türkiye, 49.
44 A Kurdish military group long-listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU, and the US.
45 S/RES/688, April 5, 1991.
46 UN Chronology: 1991 Gulf War crisis, http://www.unhcr.org/subsites/iraqcrisis/3e798c2d4/chronology-1991-gulf-war-crisis.html.
47 Kirişci and Karaca, “Hoşgörü ve Çelişkiler,” 305.
48 Aydın, “Determinants of Turkish Foreign Policy.”
49 Aras and Fidan, “Turkey and Eurosia”; Altunışık, “Worldviews and Turkish Foreign Policy”; Keyman, “Globalization, Modernity, Democracy,” and Müftüler-Baç, “The Role of the European Union.”
50 Kirdiş, “The Role of Foreign Policy.”
51 Ibid., 185.
52 Özpek and Yaşar, “Populism and Foreign Policy,” 212.
53 Öniş, “Turkey and the Arab Revolutions.”
54 Davutoğlu, “Zero Problems Foreign Policy.”
55 Özcan, Köse, and Karakoç, “Assessments of Turkish Foreign Policy.”
56 Altıok and Karşıyaka, “Recalibrating Turkish Foreign Policy.”
57 Gökalp-Aras and Mencütek, “From Assertive to Opportunist Usage,” 100.
58 Milli Gazete, “Türkiye’nin kazancı: Bush’tan teşekkür,” April 2, 1991, 5.
59 Ibid.
60 Milli Gazete, “Büyükelçi: Göçe izin vermeyiz,” April 7, 1991, 4.
61 Aykan, “Turkey’s Policy in Northern Iraq,” 346, and Van Hear, “Mass Flight,” 72.
62 Interview #2 with a bureaucrat in office, Skype, April 13, 2018.
63 Hürriyet, “Suriye’de Risk Alma Zamani,” September 29, 2012.
64 Ibid.
65 The Independent, November 25, 2016. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/president-erdogan-turkey-eu-membership-migrants-refugees-europe-warning-a7438316.html, accessed 12 October 2018.
66 Kirişçi, Syrian Refugees and Turkey’s Challenges; İçduygu “The Long Road Ahead”; and Rygiel, Baban, and Ilcan, “The Syrian Refugee Crisis,” 316.
67 Interview #3 with a bureaucrat in Office, Istanbul, April 9, 2018.
68 Ibid.
69 Hurriyet Daily News, November 1, 2018. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/260-000-syrians-returned-to-euphrates-shield-operation-area-turkish-defense-minister-138496.
70 Al Jazeera, February 24, 2017. http://www.aljazeera.com.tr/haber/cavusoglu-rakkayi-rakkalilara-teslim-edebiliriz.