Precarious Protection: On the Multiple Meanings of the „Refugee Crisis“ in Turkey

Crisis – once perceived as a decisive moment of intense difficulty and danger – has become a continuous companion of the European Union and its neighbouring regions. Turkey is one of the hotspots of the current refugee crisis harbouring more than a million Syrians since the beginning of the violent conflicts in 2011. The number of refugees has risen to above 1.9 million in 2015, including nearly 1.7 million Syrians and 200,000 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. With the new Law on Foreigners and International Protection that came into force in April 2014, Turkey maintained the geographical limitation to the Geneva Convention. Nonetheless, the law provides protection and assistance for asylum-seekers and refugees, regardless of their country of origin. Despite these obvious commitments Turkish humanitarian interventions are not only meant to protect refugees but, in addition, shape the ongoing power struggles in the region. In this paper I will look at the refugee crisis in Turkey and shift the focus on crisis as the “blind spot” that regularly remains unstudied. I will analyse power relations entangled in this crises and ask which forms of control are involved in the allegedly neutral humanitarian aid. Finally I will discuss how forms of protection and rejection contribute to the transformation of power relations and the intensification of precarity.