Policies towards Syrian immigrants in Turkey: The problem of state capacity and legitimacy

The purpose of our study is to determine whether the Syrian Migrant Policy of State of Republic of Turkey has the problem of capacity and legitimacy within the ideological, economical, security and political dimensions of social structure. In this respect, the argument of our study is that Turkey encounters governance and legitimacy deficits in the policies towards Syrian immigrants. This two-dimensional deficit points out a lack of acute infrastructural power of the State as an indication that social justice and equality are broken and political decisions are weakened. Therefore; It has been observed that it has deficiencies in both legal and social consent matters. Our hypotheses, based on the argument of our research, were determined as alternative directional hypothesis, depending on the prediction of the result that will be composed from the data obtained. Our directional hypotheses are respectively expressed as follows.There is a meaningful relationship between the Syrian immigration policy undergoing a democratic preparation process, the demand for change coming from inside and the reasons for its justification and the degree of State Capacity. If the established hypotheses are not accepted, it will be emphasized that there is a legitimacy crisis in the Syrian immigration policy.It will be shown that the root cause of the legitimacy crisis is the weakening of political decisions as an infrastructural powerdue to the fact that political decisions damage the principle of social justice and equality. While the study looks at policies towards Syrian immigrants with Michael Mann's theory of State Capacity; it aims to contribute to the legitimacy phenomenon by adding it to the theory, based on Chantal Mouffe's confrontational and JurgenHabermas's deliberative democracy practices. In our research; semi-structured interviews were conducted with the representatives of the Directorate General of Migration Management, the Turkish Red Crescent and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a mixed pattern approach. Afterwards, a survey was conducted with resident citizens and Syrian refugees in Fatih district of Istanbul province, Mezitli district of Mersin province and Kilis city center.In the final analysis, the migration policy towards Syrians, based on the data collected on the qualitative and quantitative approach, established the relationship between State capacity and legitimacy through the concept of Infrastructural power. The main framework of this concept is based on the thoughts of Habermas and Mouffe, and its reflection on the problem of State capacity and legitimacy has been evaluated within the dimensions of the social structure that Michael Mann envisaged. Key Words: Temporary Protection, State Capacity, Infrastructural Power, Deliberative democracy, Confrontational Democracy, Legitimacy