Turkey’s asylum policy towards Syrians

Abstract

Since 2011, following the crossing of the first Syrians into Turkey, the number of displaced Syrians has risen dramatically. Turkey’s management of this migration flow has raised debates surrounding this issue. With the aim of contributing to these debates, this thesis examines the peculiarities of Turkey’s asylum policy towards Syrians. The characteristics of this policy are analyzed through a comparison with Turkey’s previous policy practices in responding to asylum en masse as well as the current legal and the political framework. In that regard, the legal context is examined through the analysis of current asylum-related legislation and the political context is evaluated through the revision of the parliamentary questions and discussions of the past two years. These examinations and comparisons with the past practices show the procedures and measures to be applied in the face of asylum en masse are always left at the discretion of the ruling governments and hence they are prone to the arbitrariness. This thesis contends that following this prevailing policy practice, Turkey’s asylum policy towards Syrians is also built on an ad hoc basis and is dependent on the government’s perception of Syrians.