Migration policy is a core aspect of the European Union’s political debate and in the center of the Union’s external relations since the refugee crises arose. The European Union contemplates to ensure a joint, coherent, long-term external migration policy. Since the Syrian Civil War started, millions of people have sought a shelter in the neighboring countries to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Jordan and Lebanon are bound to the EU via the European Neighborhood Policy and Turkey is a candidate state to the European Union. How do these different forms of association play out in the EU’s attempts to regionalize refugee protection in Turkey compared to Jordan and Lebanon? Furthermore, given Turkey’s positioning as a regional power, what are the main differences and commonalities between the EU and Turkey’s foreign policy perspectives towards the Syrian refugee crisis? And how does this eventual foreign policy rivalry play out in relations to third countries implicated in the refugee crisis, such as Jordan and Lebanon? In the long term, this might be interpreted that the refugee and Syrian crises cannot be solved without close cooperation between the EU and its key partners in this region as well as putting the concept of “burden sharing” into practice.
Tugce Kilic (tugce.kilic@coleurope.eu)
Tugce KILIC holds a BA/BS degree from the Translation and Interpreting Studies and Polical Science and International Relations, Cankaya University, Turkey. She gained her MA degree from the College of Europe, the European Interdisciplinary Studies with a specialization on the EU as Global Actor. She worked for OSCE/ ODIHR Election Observation Missions, Northern Syria Mission of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and EU-IPA projects as an expert. Currently, she is a PhD Research Scholar interested in Refugee Crises and EU Common Migration Policy.