Aegean in Motion: The Reasons, Consequences, and Tragedies of Four Distinct Phases of Migration in the Aegean Sea

Abstract

This study deals with the concept of Aegean in Motion and this concept's conflict with migration policymaking in Turkey. We argue that the region has always been a route for immigration and emigration with distinct causes and consequences. Our aim is to focus on four different and massive phases of this motion. First, we look at the period that started in the nineteenth century and ended with the Turkish-Greek population exchange. This wave was closely associated with war, state building, and the aims of ethnic homogenization within newly-formed borders. The second phase of this migration started with the rising fascist policies of Italy in the Dodecanese in the second half of the 1930s and reached its peak during the Second World War. This period, again related to political crisis and war, indicates fragmented policies by the host state, Turkey, towards different nationalities: Turks, Greeks, and Axis soldiers. The third phase of movement was in the post-1980 period, when Turkey became an immigration and so-called "a transit country". It was discovered later that the migrant and refugee journeys were fragmented and refugees were stranded in the region. The post-2000 period faced many dilemmas: major numbers of crossings from Turkey to Greek shores, thousands of deaths in one year, the readmission deal between the EU and Turkey and the strengthening of border controls via Frontex and EU externalization of migration policy. These four phases are examined via archival work and desk-based research/literature review of articles with a historical perspective, and for each phase a model of immigration policy and state response to/ facilitation of these mobilities will be elaborated.