State Security versus Human Security: Turkish Foreign Policy towards Syrian Refugees

Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, a great number of Syrians have sought asylum in neighboring countries. An approximate number of 13.5 million people are in danger of displacement due to the conflict. At the time of writing, this thesis 6.3 million Syrian‘s were internally displaced and more than 4.9 million were seeking asylum in other countries. This makes the Syrian Refugee Crisis one of the biggest humanitarian crises of today‘s world. In this context, the debate over the hierarchy between state security and human security gains more significance. The border between Syria and Turkey is about 822 kilometers long. Turkey accepted a substantial number of refugees (around 2.7 million) by advocating a human security discourse at the early stages of the conflict. The lack of proper vetting of refugees and the problems caused, or at least assumed to be caused by refugees led to a shift in Turkey‘s policy regarding refugees. Turkey shifted from a human security approach to the problem of refugees to a state security approach that gave dominance to Turkey‘s national security. This research is aimed at identifying and explaining the pattern that led to such a shift. Keywords: Syrian crisis, refugees, human security, state security