Syrian refugees and Turkish political parties: Domestic interests versus European values

Abstract

The open-door policy of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi - AKP) government during the early years of the Syrian conflict led to the inflow of more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees to the country in eight years. This great migration wave turned Turkey into the host of the biggest number of refugees in the world, surpassing the record of Pakistan. At the beginning of the migration wave, both political parties and the public had a welcoming attitude towards the migrants that had to flee from the Syrian civil war. However, in a few years, this attitude started to change rapidly and radically. This study aims to compare attitudes of the five biggest political parties represented in the Turkish Grand National Assembly towards the incoming migrants: the AKP, the CHP (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi – the Republican People’s Party), the MHP (Milliyetçi Halk Partisi – the Nationalist Action Party), the HDP (Halkların Demokrasi Partisi – the People’s Democratic Party) and the Good Party (İyi Parti). Why do some political parties have a pro-refugee attitude, like the JDP? How do they legitimise their policy? How did the JDP’s migration policy evolve over time? Why are some of the political parties, like the İyi Party, perceiving the existence of refugees from a negative perspective? Why do they want to send refugees back? What kind of similarities and differences are there among political parties on the migration issue? Political parties’ attitudes towards refugees represent their construction of self-identity and identity of others. Therefore, this study also aims to shed light on the debates of political parties on the Turkish identity as well.