ERDOĞAN’S POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND FOREIGN POLICY NEXUS: THE CASE OF THE SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS AND TURKEY’S ROLE

Abstract

Following the victory of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the 2002 Turkish general election, the country embarked on a highly successful program of economic liberalization and social conservatism. The stellar economic performance of the Turkish national economy transformed Turkey’s position on the world stage, politically as well as economically, boosting the country’s image in the world. Since the beginning of civil war in Syria following the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings from 2011 onwards, the number of refugees in Turkey reached over 4 million as estimated by the UN in mid-August 2017, making Turkey the host country with the largest net refugee population in the world, to say nothing of the vast population of unregistered refugees. The Turkish receptive policies from the outset were predicated on the assumption that the conflict would come to a swift conclusion, allowing the Syrian “guests” (a word chosen in national political discourse rather than “refugees”) to return home, precluding the need to plan for their long-term or permanent stay in Turkey. Unstable political conditions in the region and Turkey’s generous open-door policy have made it a symbol of Islamic brotherhood and humanitarianism and it is the main hope of displaced Syrians and the region in general to ameliorate the humanitarian catastrophe and seek to end the conflict. This paper demonstrates the importance of Turkey’s immigration policy under the leadership of Erdoğan, and its significant implications for foreign and domestic policy.