The Syrian refugee crisis through the lenses of Turkish political discourses: An analysis of deliberations in the Turkish Parliament

Abstract

Migration has become highly contentious. Turkey is no exception. Turkey faces even further challenges as the host to the world's largest refugee population, with Syrians as the majority. Fear about loss of control over borders, and its subsequent political, economic, social and cultural repercussions lies at the heart of migration debates. Parliamentary deliberations provide a public venue for airing these concerns. The paper focuses on Turkish Parliamentary deliberations on the Syrians to assess its issue salience. To do so, an extensive coding of the Parliamentary debates from 2015 to 2019 is conducted. The paper's rigorous analysis of the Turkish Parliamentary debates on the Syrians reveals multiple findings, uncovering a divide among the five political parties in the Parliament—the AKP, CHP, MHP, Iyi Party and the HDP emphasizing different dimensions. The paper captures the commonalities and differences among these political parties with a systematic empirical study of Turkish Parliamentary debates.