Syrian refugees and Turkish political parties: Domestic interests versus European values
Künye
Demirtaş, B. (2020). Syrian refugees and Turkish political parties: Domestic interests versus European values. Security Challenges and the Place of the Balkans and Serbia in a Changing World içerisinde 150-165.Özet
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.
