The role of Turkey- EU relations and Turkey- to- Europe emigration experience in the treatment of Syrians in Turkey

Abstract

The essential factors that guide the way Turkey has treated Syrian refugees under temporary protection in the past are the Turkish state’s willingness to become a soft power in the region; Turkey’s experience of emigration to Western European countries, particularly to Germany; the Europeanization of Turkish migration and asylum policies and laws; migration diplomacy; and neo-Ottomanism and Islamist mythology during the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Based on this premise, this chapter examines how these factors guide the ways in which actors of the Turkish state and Turkish civil society have been treating Syrian refugees since the beginning of the mass migration process in 2011. Drawing on earlier work by the author on the Europeanization of Turkish migration and asylum policies and laws, as well as on emigration from Turkey to Europe, this chapter examines what role Turkey-EU migration history and Turkey-EU relations play in the way Syrian refugees are treated in Turkey. In addition, it sheds light on the role of a number of other relevant, even decisive, factors, including soft-power aspirations, Islamist mythology, neo-Ottomanism and migration diplomacy. © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Berna Şafak Zülfikar Savcı, Ludger Pries, and M. Murat Erdoğan; individual chapters, the contributors.