A child pulls a suitcase as Syrian refugees arrive in Turkey at the Cilvegözü crossing gate of Reyhanlı, on August 31, 2013. (Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)[/caption]The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has reached half a million. The news was first made public in early September via the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s official Twitter account. The tweet announced that, of those 500,000 refugees, “over 200,000 Syrians are currently being hosted in the 20 temporary sheltering centers located in 20 provinces.”
In the early days of the Syrian uprising, back in April 2011, when Syrians first started to flee to Turkey, Turkish officials never imagined the numbers would reach such a colossal figure. After burning bridges with Bashar Al-Assad and siding with the opposition forces, Turkey was confident that the refugee problem would not last. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government remained convinced it was only a matter of days before Assad’s regime would fall.
The belief that Bashar Al-Assad’s days were numbered no doubt played a role in Turkey’s decision to initially refuse any international assistance toward the cost of hosting Syrian refugees. It was likely Turkey’s newly gained self-confidence, if not arrogance, following its exemplary economic success and an assertive foreign policy that led the government to turn down the offers of support from the international community.
But as the Syrian uprising turned into a civil war and the influx of refugees intensified Turkey started to make calls for international assistance. Yet while Turkey says it has now spent USD 2 billion on looking after the refugees, the international help received so far has been minimal. On Monday Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey had received only USD 135 million in international aid for the refugees.
When the possibility of a Western military strike against Syrian regime facilities arose following the alleged chemical weapons attack in Ghouta, Turkey supported a military intervention. The Russian-American agreement that seems to have averted such an attack has left the AKP government disappointed by what they see to be a weak Western response. “Unfortunately US Secretary of State Kerry's remarks on surrendering chemical weapons removed the possibility of an intervention," Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç recently told Turkey's NTV television. Turkey is now paying the price for hedging its bets on the swift departure of Assad. Frustration mounts as, in the eyes of Turkish officials the world does not want to deal the deadly blow to Assad’s forces, and neither will it shoulder the burden of hosting 500,000 refugees.
Western officials have said that they are not able to provide assistance as long as Turkey fails to allow them supervision over the channeling of funding. “We are being asked to write a check for the Turkish government. But things do not work like that. We prefer to extend assistance through UN bodies,” explained one European official.
Although Turkey is party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it has placed a “geographical limitation” under the Convention, whereby it limits its obligation to apply the Convention to refugees from outside Europe. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is meant to register non-European asylum-seekers in Turkey and determine their refugee status. The Turkish government has however denied full access to the camps to the UNHCR, further hampering international efforts to provide assistance. Turkish officials have voiced objections to allowing Western humanitarian organizations to operate inside Turkey as they do not want to transfer what they see as their sovereignty to a UN body. “We will not give up our sovereign rights. And to our knowledge UNHCR is fully satisfied and very pleased with our cooperation,” was the response from a Turkish official when questioned on the subject.
However, it looks as though Turkey will soon be accepting greater assistance from the international community. A meeting organized by the UNHCR earlier this month brought together foreign ministers of countries bordering Syria to discuss “burden-sharing.” The UNHCR's Executive Committee Meeting in Geneva, to be held on September 30-October 4 will also discuss greater cooperation between international organizations and the countries hosting Syrian refugees.
In the early days the Turkish public seemed rather proud of the hospitality shown to Syrian refugees. “From the first day, Turkey has followed an open-door policy. This should be appreciated,” said Taner Kılıç, the head of the Association for Solidarity with Refugees (Mülteci-Der). However there are now many voices questioning why Turkey is shouldering such a huge economic burden in looking after the refugees. Kılıç explained that the lack of transparency over the operating of the refugee camps has cast doubt over the positive aspects of Turkey’s treatment of Syrian refugees. The camps have been a controversial issue in Turkey since domestic opposition parties argued they were being used as training camps for Syrian opposition fighters.
Discontent over Turkey’s accommodation of Syrian refugees is not limited to economic concerns. Turkey’s borders with Syria are home to Turkish Alawites and Alevis. The majority of Syrians fleeing across the border come from the Sunni sect. Turkish residents in the cities where Syrian refugees have settled have become increasingly resentful of their presence. Turkey’s initial open-door policy has also created security problems, seen most dramatically in the twin car bombing of the border town Reyhanlı in May, killing 51 and injuring 140 people.
Local administrations have long been warning about the lack of efficient control at the borders. It comes as no surprise then that some commentators have started calling the Syrian border region “Turkey’s North Western Frontier,” in reference to the lawless region on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
