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REFUGEE CRISIS NEXT DOOR: TURKEY AND THE SYRIAN REFUGEES
Authors: Devrim ÜMİT
Number of views: 566
While globalization and global security are leading to a people-centered security approach and while Turkey is emerging as a significant regional and international player, the country has become more responsive not only to the conflicts in its region, but also to the resulting humanitarian crises such as the ongoing Syrian humanitarian crisis following the outbreak of the civil war in Syria which completed the severe third year on 15 March 2014 with two and a half million refugees fleeing to neighboring countries and six and a half million internally displaced people within Syria. Tens of thousands of people in a short span of time had to run off the atrocities and massacres committed by the Syrian state to find shelter in bordering countries while leaving their loved ones, homes, and jobs behind which they hoped to return to before too long. Turkey has opened its doors since late April 2011 for safe haven and humanitarian aid to the massive influx of refugees of diverse ethnic, religious, and sectarian backgrounds from all walks of life regardless of age, gender, social status, and political affiliation fleeing from the violent civil war that has been continuing with harsh records of imprisonment, torture, and persecution. Passed only by Lebanon, as a host country for the second largest bulk of the Syrian refugees, Turkey has been endeavoring with legal, social, cultural, political, financial, and security tools to manage the task of providing the Syrian refugees with temporary protection, based on open door policy and the principle of non-refoulement, on a sustainable pattern taking into account the high possibility of the long-tenure of the broader Syrian crisis and the consequent refugee crisis, the worst humanitarian crisis in years. Therefore, this paper will shed some light on the changing dynamics and parameters of the Turkish foreign policy as the country has been burgeoning as an important peace broker in regional conflicts and a key player in the Middle East while putting the Syrian refugees in Turkey in the spotlight.
Keywords: Turkish foreign policy, Syrian refugee crisis, global security, humanitarian assistance