The Syrian Refugee Crisis and its Effects on the EU-Turkey Cooperation

Turkey has been seriously affected by the refugee crisis which is constituted by the Syrian people escaping from the civil war started in 2011. With the excessive number of asylum seekers who lost their hopes of returning to their hometown, Turkey has become one of the countries with the highest number of asylum-seekers in the world. The Syrian asylum seekers hoped for a better life and tried to cross to the member states of the European Union, and most of them lost their lives during their journey in the Aegean Sea. The number of asylum seekers who reached to the EU countries has also reached big amounts and Turkey as a candidate country, has been attained for maintaining the security of the borders of the European Union. This circumstance has brought attention to the issue of illegal immigration and asylum. Today, both the European Union and Turkey have witnessed the greatest influx of refugees in their history. That refugee crisis has been formed by the people escaping from Syrian Civil War which was erupted as one of the queues of the Arab Spring. Turkey and the European Union are spending effort together to solve irregular migration crisis and fight against the illegal human trafficking on this issue.This thesis tries to demonstrate reasons beneath the current developments between the European Union and Turkey regarding the Syrian refugee crisis. Examining the Readmission Agreements and Visa Liberalization Dialogue, the thesis tries to explain concern of the parties regarding values and interests. Benefit-cost analysis with Europeanization models will reflect the reasons behind Turkey’s acceptance of the burden of the Readmission Agreements in return for a fragile visa liberty condition and the European Union’s incentives under the Readmission Agreement and visa liberalization considering the Syrian refugee crisis will be addressed in this work.