This presentation is providing information on immigration governance on Syrian Refugee crisis 2011-2018 in the Turkey and European Union

1. The Impact of Syrian Refugees
on Turkey and European Union
Relations
Gizem Ay
2017800134

2. The Brief History of Turkey and EU relations
1963- Ankara Treaty
1995- Customs Union
1997- Agenda 2000 – TR is not a member state (Eastern Europe + Southern
Cyprus)
1997- Luxembourg Summit – TR included as special case
1999- Helsinki Summit- TR reached the candidate status
2002- Progress Report
2004- EU Summit
2004-Annan Referandum
2016- FAILED QUO ATTEMPT
2017- COUNSIL OF EUROPE’S DECISION

3. • The EU’s handling of the refugees has been governed by the Dublin
Convention.
• According to this Convention, an asylum seeker applies for asylum in
the country where he/she has stepped in first. As a result of this rule,
the refugees who have reached the EU from its southern borders by
passing over the Mediterranean have started to increase rapidly
leading to a reaction in the EU especially in Greece and Italy.
• However, soon it has become clearly evident that the EU did not have
a working and unified migration policy to manage these uncontrolled
refugee flows.

4. • The Dublin Convention was not capable of managing or solving the
current refugee crisis.
• Therefore, the EU’s initial response to the refugee crisis has been
incoherent.
• Different member states have taken different approaches to the
problem. Some countries have introduced border controls like
Denmark’s decision on its borders with Germany.
• While Hungary has started to build a wall to stop the refugees,
Poland has refused to accept thousands of refugees.

6. • As a result of these developments, the ex-President of France
Nicholas Sarkozy has even called Schengen to be dead (Across the EU,
nationalism and far-right parties have started to gain increased
support in parallel with increasing xenophobia and Islamofobia.
• In a way, the refugee crisis has turned out to be a domestic problem
in many of the member states as well as a crisis for the EU as a
whole. In this crisis atmosphere, the EU has given priority to security
driven concerns and interests of the EU member states and has tried
to come up with new policies to improve border controls, return and
readmission, and fight against smuggling. Ensuring full compliance
with fundamental human rights standards

7. • In this crisis, the existing instruments to control the external borders,
like Frontex and Triton, were not effective,
• It has become clear that the EU was not able to struggle with this
crisis only by using its existing instruments and policies.
• For many EU politicians and leaders, the EU has limits and accepting
more refugees is not economically sustainable anymore, furthermore,
it risks destroying the EU.

8. • The crisis has been started on 2011.
• But the media and Western states turned their attention to refugees
after Alan Kurdi’s death on 2.09.2015

9. Syrian Refugees and the Solutions by EU and
Turkey
As a solution to the recent refugee crisis,
-Readmission Agreement (2013),
-Joint Action Plan (2015) and
-The EU-Turkey Deal Statement (2016)
With these steps, it can be argued that Turkey-EU relations were
renewed in a more cooperative approach promising partnership and
cooperation objectives, after a period of up and downs within the
long history of accession process

10. • Firstly, the application of Readmission Agreement was aimed to be
put into practice.
• According to the agreement, for every Syrian being returned from the
Greek islands to Turkey, another Syrian from Turkey would be
resettled in the EU.
• Secondly, the EU promised to give financial support to be used by the
authorities in order to increase the standards of the refugees in
Turkey (an initial 3 billion until the end of 2018).
• Lastly, two sides agreed upon a visa liberalisation roadmap.
Readmission Agreement (2013)

11. • In terms of refugees, after the first year of its implementation, the
readmission programme seems to be working slowly. As of
September 2016, only 8,268 people have resettled in Turkey since the
launch of the agreement
• For the visa liberalization, Turkey is expected to fulfill several
requirements including the establishment of migration and asylum
systems in line with international standards, effective struggle against
smuggling and human trafficking, secure travel documents, and
respect for fundamental rights of citizens and migrants alike.

12. Joint Action Plan (2015
• In October 2015, the Commission presented the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan,
subsequently activated during the November 29 EU-Turkey Summit, intended to
step up cooperation to stem the flow of irregular migrants crossing the Aegean
Sea.
• According to the Joint Action Plan, the EU would also provide humanitarian
assistance in Turkey and financial aid of 3 billion Euro.
• In exchange, Turkey would block the influx of irregular migrants to the EU and
improve the living conditions of Syrians registered under its temporary protection
scheme.
• A declared aim of the Summit was to re-energize the accession process after a
long stalled period.
• To this purpose, they also decided to hold regular summits twice a year, in order
to assess the development of relations.

13. The EU-Turkey Deal Statement (2016)
• AccordingIn March 2016, the leaders met again to discuss
cooperation over the migration crisis. On that occasion, they agreed
upon a revised version of the deal.
• to EU-Turkey deal, Turkey would take back all migrants arriving on
Greece’s shores after 20 March, in exchange for an additional 3 billion
euros and the promise to lift the visa obligation for Turkish citizens by
June 2016, conditional upon the fulfilment of the 72 criteria.
• The deal also included a “1-to-1” clause: for every Syrian deported to
Turkey from the Greek islands, another Syrian would be resettled in
the EU directly from Turkey.

14. What Turkey wants from the EU?
• ​Money to pay for the refugees it is hosting,
• visa-free travel for its citizens in the Schengen zone,
• and progress on its long-stalled application for EU membership.
• Turkey also wants a safe haven for refugees in northern Syria, but that
idea is opposed by Assad and his main ally, Russia.

15. • Turkey repeatedly threatened to terminate the agreement because,
• Firstly, the EU has not paid the stipulated amount,
• Secondly, the visa freedom for Turkish citizens provided for under the
agreement has not been implemented.
• Under the agreement, Turkey was promised €6 billion in financial aid, to
be used by the Turkish government to finance projects for Syrian refugees.
According to the EU Commission, €3 billion has already flowed into Turkey
to cover the costs of educating half a million Syrian children.

20. THANK YOU