Humanitarian diplomaci in Turkish foreign policy: Syrian crisis and migration

As a result of globalization, the meaning of many concepts in the field of international relations has expanded and gained depth. The issue that stands out among these concepts is the issue of "diplomacy". According to TDK, diplomacy is defined as agreements regulating international relations and representing the country in foreign countries. Although diplomacy in the classical sense can be summarized as foreign relations carried out through the official representatives of a country, today it is seen that diplomacy in the classical sense is no longer sufficient to achieve the country's foreign political goals. For this purpose, countries have started to use different diplomatic methods within their own horizons and possibilities. In terms of the deepening and expansion of diplomacy, one of the prominent concepts in the 21st century is "humanitarian diplomacy". Although the concept of humanitarian diplomacy has been used in international relations literature since the early 1900s, there is no consensus on the definition of this concept. In fact, according to a research conducted by the Institute of International Relations, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent had 89 different definitions of humanitarian diplomacy between 2010 and 2011. Most of the definitions made in this context evaluate the concept of humanitarian diplomacy as an activity carried out only in cases of natural disaster or humanitarian crisis. The first book to systematically examine humanitarian diplomacy was edited by Larry Minear and Hazel Smith in 2007. Minear and Smith associated humanitarian diplomacy with humanitarian organizations engaging with political and military authorities to conduct operations. Therefore, the duo stated that humanitarian diplomacy concerns actions taken by humanitarian organizations and their staff, as opposed to career diplomats who support relief activities in any crisis zone. It is a manifestation of the imperialist countries' efforts to rebuild the Middle East against the background of the uprisings that started as the Arab Spring in 2010 and claimed to be against the dictatorial regime. Related to this, the effects of the civil war that broke out in Syria have also greatly affected its border neighbor, Turkey. As a result of the civil war, millions of Syrian citizens wanted to come to Turkey as refugees or use Turkey as a transit country to migrate to European countries. During the civil war, Türkiye implemented an open door policy towards Syrian citizens. Syrians have come to Turkey for temporary shelter and have not been able to return to their country for years because the Assad regime remains in power and continues its dictatorial regime. In our research, we tried to answer the importance of humanitarian diplomacy in Turkish foreign policy and, the impact of humanitarian diplomacy on the Syrian crisis and migration phenomena by scanning the literature on the subject. Humanitarian diplomacy is the most functional diplomatic activity in foreign policy in recent years. At this point, the Syrian crisis that emerged in our recent history was examined specifically in terms of humanitarian diplomacy activities, and the perspective of both Syrian refugees and Turkey on humanitarian diplomacy activities was evaluated.