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Syria is one of the countries where a revolution wave named Arab Spring uprose in early 2011. The most radical discourse from Arab Spring into the still ongoing civil wars took place in Syria as early as the second half of 2011. At the beginning it was a civil protest against Assad’s government. Nobody could not estimate the future developments in Syria. The cost of the war in Syria increases every day. More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war. More than 11 million others have been forced from their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each other - as well as jihadist militants from Islamic State. Mixed featured developments and longer resistance of Assad’s regime than estimated escalated tension in Syria in last four and half years. As a result, many countries in the Middle East, such as Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, also Turkey, Serbia, Germany, Sweden, Hungary, Austria, Netherlands, Bulgaria are the sides that should pay a cost of the Syrian war. These states spend a remarkable budget for the Syrian refugees. Economic expenditure is just one dimension of Syrian refugee crisis. Movement of Syrian refugees to the European countries passing Turkish borders is one of the biggest migration crisis of the modern world history. Considering multifaced impacts of the migration, the aim of this paper is to analyze the Syrian refugee crisis as a new negotiation headline between the Europan Union and Turkey.

The multidimensional characteristics of the HSR networks make debated the benefits of them. In this context, the aim of this study is to review of Turkey’s HSR systems from spatial equity perspective within the framework of recent research and developments. The latest secondary data from the official statistics of the Ministries of Development; Environment and Urbanization; Industry and Technology of Turkey has been used for the purpose of the analysis. The research methods included: critical analysis of the source literature, analysis of secondary data (desk-research) and graphic methods (tables and maps), by means of which the results of the study have been presented. The main argument of study is that considering the current geographical location of the HSR network of the country, it creates challenges in terms of spatial equity and deepens the regional polarization. The existing HSR network has facilitated mobility, especially in terms of domestic tourism. However, the usage of the HSR by a limited part of population and restrictions applied due to the COVID-19 pandemic question the amount of returns of the HSR’s costs, which are enough expensive investments in Turkey. On the other hand, increasing inequalities arising from the HSR infrastructures shaped on the basis of factors such as the geographical features of the country, general development level, population and demand density, are tried to be minimized by roadway and airway alternatives.

Introduction. The study analyses the reflection of the infrastructure projects on the Trans-Caspian transport corridor in the media. By combining the roles of transport corridor as a means of regional cooperation and overcoming ethnic issues between the countries, it is aimed at addressing two main questions. The first question would be on the reflection of infrastructure projects on the Trans-Caspian transport corridor in the media in the context of promoting regional cooperation, the second on whether news about infrastructure projects contains any ethnic based messages of discrimination or hostility to exclude any country from such projects. The BTK railway project is used as a case in this paper in this respect. Methods and materials. A conceptual content analysis methodology is applied in this study, which is limited to online media news of three major news agencies of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey within a specific time period beginning from the official inauguration of the BTK until the date of conducting this research – 30 October 2017 – 15 May 2020. Analysis and results. The findings reveal that the news investigated within the context of this research involves positive messages supporting regional cooperation, mutual benefits and common interests that may have an incentive impact on public perceptions. It was also discovered that the news about the BTK railway project does not contain any content otherizing or excludes any country, which may help societies to focus on regional cooperation rather than vulnerable ethnic issues. Considering the difficulty of control of social media, it has been recommended that official news may avoid publishing messages with provocative content. Authors’ contribution. A.N. Uste developed the content of the article and carried out its general scientific editing. U. Sanili Aydin proposed a scheme for research analysis. The authors jointly analyzed the results.