Turkish Forum

Tag: refugees

  • How many Turks lived in Balkans

    How many Turks lived in Balkans

    How many Turks lived in Balkans (approximately) before the Ottoman Empire collapsed and Turks/Muslims living there were forced to migrate or slaughtered?

    Muhacir refugees escaping from the 1912–1913 Balkan war waiting at the quay of Ottoman Istanbul
    (Muhacir refugees escaping from the 1912–1913 Balkan war waiting at the quay of Ottoman İstanbul)

    There’s no exact or approximate estimate pertaining to how many Turks lived in the Balkans before the Ottoman Empire collapsed. However, over a period of a few centuries, especially after the Ottoman Empire lost almost all its territory during the Balkan War of 1912-13 and World War I, many Turks/Muslims in Europe were forced to migrate to the Ottoman Empire. Around 10 million, to be precise. An estimated 25% to 33% of Türkiye’s 85 million population descend from these refugees who were called ‘Muhacir1’ (transl. refugees). Millions of these people were either persecuted, exiled, or killed2.

    1. Muhacir – Wikipedia ↩︎
    2. Persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction – Wikipedia ↩︎
  • Turkey has new law on asylum, but sets limits for non-Europeans

    Turkey has new law on asylum, but sets limits for non-Europeans

    Jonathon Burch

    Reuters

    1:05 p.m. CDT, April 12, 2013

    ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey passed a long-awaited asylum law on Friday that will enhance protection for people seeking refuge, but retained restrictions on applications from those from outside Europe.

    Turkey’s position as a bridge from Asia to Europe, as well as its wealth compared with neighboring states, has long made it both a destination and a transit point for migrants from the Middle East and as far afield as Africa and South Asia.

    But Turkey, a candidate to join the EU, has long been under international pressure to regulate its asylum laws, demands that have mounted in the past two years with the arrival of some 400,000 refugees fleeing civil war in neighboring Syria.

    The new legislation, which was signed into law by Turkey’s president on Friday after being passed by parliament the previous day, provides the first legal framework for the protection of asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey.

    The law now grants full refugee status to those coming to Turkey from Europe, and provides for the establishment of a new civilian body to oversee refugee applications, a process currently handled by the police, who are often untrained.

    The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), said it had “supported” the drafting process and welcomed the law as an “important advancement for international protection”, while the EU said it was a “clear commitment to build an effective migration management system in line with EU and international standards”.

    However, the new law stops short of lifting a geographical limitation widely criticized by rights groups. People arriving in Turkey “as a result of events from outside European countries” will only be given “conditional refugee” status.

    While Turkey is one of the original signatories to the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, it is one of only a small number of countries to maintain a limitation on where it will accept them from.

    Apart from a wave of refugees fleeing the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the Kosovo conflict in the 1990s, it is thought the numbers seeking asylum in Turkey from Europe have been very small in recent years.

    Lifting its geographical limitation on asylum is a major condition for Turkey to join the European Union. Ankara has been in formal accession talks with the bloc since 2005, but those negotiations have stalled.

    Rights groups have criticized the limitation because it leaves non-European refugees in a legal limbo while they wait to be settled in a third country by the UNHCR, which can often take many years.

    With most of the attention on the tens of thousands of Syrians flowing into Turkey over the past two years, the growing number of refugees from other countries, particularly Afghanistan, often goes unreported.

    While the numbers are much lower than those arriving from Syria, asylum applications from other countries in Turkey rose by 50 percent between June 2011 and June 2012, the UNHCR says.

    (Editing by Nick Tattersall and Jon Hemming)

    via Turkey has new law on asylum, but sets limits for non-Europeans – chicagotribune.com.

  • Turkey Doesn’t Want Greek Cyprus Taking EU Council Presidency

    Turkey Doesn’t Want Greek Cyprus Taking EU Council Presidency

    eu1The Turkish government declared that it will suspend its relations with the European Union if the Greek half of Cyprus takes the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union scheduled in July 2012 without first solving the reunification issue between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots. Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan stated that Turkey does not recognize Cyprus as a nation.

    The modern history of Cyprus starting in the 1970′s is strife with military violence and political struggles that resulted in a Greek coup d’etat, a Turkish invasion and the formation of a North Turkish state and a Southern Greek state. These events led to a two-way movement of refugees on the island.

    The movement of civilians in recent times has caused many controversially claiming ‘family land’ and other such land that was supposed to be inherited decades ago.

    Both sides on the relatively small island have caused their shares of troubles between the European world and Turkey.

    The island countries have been the site of United Nations interventions and the heavy presence of more than 30,000 Turkish troops and the Greek Cypriot National Guard effectively cutting the island into two entirely different ethnic and political camps.

    The Greek side became recognized by the European Union enjoying more benefits, such as the chance to preside as EU president, than its Turkish neighbor.

    Talks between the two sides in the past have failed or faltered but were rejuvenated in 2008. Both sides in the past have tried reunification plans including the Annan Plan which failed in part because of the Greek Cypriot’s admant rejection of the plan.

    (Cover Photo: European Community)

    via Turkey Doesn’t Want Greek Cyprus Taking EU Council Presidency | iNewp.com.

  • An open letter from Afghan refugees in Turkey to UNHCR

    An open letter from Afghan refugees in Turkey to UNHCR

    Dear UNHCR Authorities,

    arton71113 dbed2Afghans refugees are the third largest irregular refugee group in Turkey. Most have fled the war in Afghanistan. In 2010, refugees from Afghanistan numbered near 3,500 and made a sizable proportion of Turkey’s registered migrants. Most of them were spread out over satellite cities, with the following being the specific locations: Van, Ağrı, Kayseri, Gaziantep, Eskişehir, Çorum, Adana, Kahraman Maraş, Newşehir, Niğde, Sivas, Tokat, Istanbul, Ankara, Kutahya, Burdur, Konya, Karaman, Aksaray, Niğde and Hatay.

    Over the years, the number of Afghans entering Turkey has greatly increased. As of January 2010, Afghans consisted one-sixth of the 26,000 remaining refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey. By the end 2011, with the increase of war and violence in Afghanistan, their numbers are expected to surge up to 10,000, making them the largest refugee group, surpassing all other groups.

    Afghan refugees are victims of the Afghan government’s propaganda, which makes the UNHCR think that Afghanistan has become safe and its refugees need little assistance. This mindset from your organization toward Afghan refugees confirms what people say about the UNHCR – that it is an institution that doesn’t truly respect human rights. Because of this approach by the UNHCR, a large number of Afghan refugees have lost their lives as they have chosen to independently and illegalty smuggle themselves to EU member countries.

    When it comes to Afghan refugees in Turkey, we believe that UNHCR chooses not to uphold the rights of these refugees, and refuses to comply with its own mandate. Refugee applications take far too long to process, and living conditions for refugees are untenable.

    Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, we live with lies and broken promises of change, and when change comes, it is for the worse and not for the better. Nothing improves despite all the negotiations.

    Like you, we were fed the love of my country. Like you, we remember our past and present, and remember the rusty keys of my parents’ home, keys to doors that exist no more, but keys that have their doors in our hearts and our imaginations. These rusty keys are still with us. We remember that we were brought up with this eternal belief that right is right, and nothing can justify ignoring it.

    But for our children, the situation is very bad. They feel excluded and discriminated against. They are ashamed because they live in refugee housing and therefore they do not bring their friends from school to their apartments. The children have no room and space for themselves. They have little possibilities to learn from school. They ask their parents for help with their school lessons, but their parents don’t know the new language. The futures of our children are being destroyed in the collective refugee buildings. They become adults earlier than other children, because they live among other refugees, most of whom are adults, under harsh conditions. Through the control of the janitors and their presence, they feel in their young life like they are in prison.

    It is hard to imagine that in this century, families spend their nights hungry, and children spend their nights playing in the dim light of a candle because their families can’t afford to pay for electricity. It is even worse to imagine that in the peak of the world modernization, some groups of people are locked in a small place and denied the freedom of movement. It is hard to imagine that a mother gives birth to two babies here, and the firstborn child is going to be five, having waited all her life for a change in her status file that is yet to come. It is hard to imagine that the Afghan refugees live here without the right to work, and only getting some money for paying for food and rent.

    We believe in human values and human rights and generosity. We believe in freedom, justice, peace, democracy and equality. We believe that people who fight for justice and against oppression are heroes, like you. We believe that you are a role model, and you will affect generations to come.

    But we are also the witness of UNHCR staff sometimes working to the detriment of Afghan refugees. During the last night of 2010, many fıles of Afghan refugees learned that they had been accepted, and they ware happy with UNHCR for this kind of pleasant surprise. Unfortunatly, after two days, our smiles vanished as we learned that our files had been changed to Private Accept (Özel kabul in Turkish). This incident shows the quality of work the UNHCR staff in Ankara performs for Afghan refugees.

    We are the witness of a letter sent it the same document to an Afghan refugee twice after three months. This also shows the quality of work your staff in Ankara performs for Afghan reffugees.

    We do not accept such inattention and violations of the rights of Afghan refugees, and we, jointly with Afghan refugees all over of Turkey, therefore make the following demands:

    • Until our primary demand is implemented, we ask that UNHCR take immediate steps to ensure that the status determination procedures are efficient, fair, and transparent, and that UNHCR and its affiliated organizations are accountable to asylum-seekers

    • UNHCR must explain why the cases of Afghan refugees in Turkey take significantly longer to process compared to those of other refugees

    • UNHCR must explain why the case of many Afghan refugees, which have been accepted already by UNHCR, are suspended within 1 to 2 years

    • UNHCR must explain why the cases of many Afghan refugees are in the Specific Acceptance status or in Turkish (Özel Kabul). We demand to know why the UNHCR refuses to explain this to us. And, finally, what is the difference between the Normal Acceptance and Specific Acceptance? How many years must those in the Specific Acceptance status wait for the change? We are demanding that the UNHCR change Specific Acceptance to Normal Acceptance.

    • If you want to work for Afghan refugees, you must employ Afghan translators who are familiar with the Afghan language and culture. Because there is a big difference between Farsi – which the translators speak – and Dari – which the Afghan refugees speak – we don’t understand the translators well, and they in turn cannot understand us and fail to accurately convey what we mean. Translators must be proficient in Dari and must understand Afghan culture to ensure that refugees’ accounts are recorded correctly and in full.

    • Interviews must be made comfortable; asylum-seekers should not feel criminalized by interviewers.

    • Full and clear reasons for rejection must be disclosed in a detailed format, directly to the refugee, immediately after a decision has been made.

    • We demand that all rejected case files immediately be reopened and reviewed under the standards for UNHCR’s operation demanded here.

    • UNHCR must ensure that collaborating agencies and NGOs mandated to assist asylum seekers and refugees, for example ASAM, are free from corrupt practices and treat refugees fairly and in accordance with their rights.

    The current situation of Afghan refugees in Turkey, which has been ongoing for years, is not now nor has it ever been acceptable. Our Coordination Group will continue to campaign until human rights violations cease and our refugees are protected by the UNHCR according to its mandate.

    The UNHCR is well aware that many Afghan refugees who have been registered with the UNHCR choose to go to the EU illegally. They wait for a long period of time hoping a change in their status, but that does not happen. You are also well aware that many Afghan refugee families from several cities left Turkey to enter the EU illegally because UNHCR invented a new law by creating the “specific acceptance situation,” or in Turkish, Özel kabul.

    We are asking you: “What have you done to process our status?” This is why we continue to work to make a positive change and work for a better tomorrow at a time when every day that comes is worse than the day before for us.

    We, the Afghan refugees, have been patient for a very long time, waiting for a change in our files. We have been silent since the UNHCR office inaugurated in Turkey and relied solely on you and your staff, but unfortunately, in the last few years, nothing has changed for us, instigating us to start the protest.

    We don’t know if you will read these words or not, but we do hope that such words that come from our heart will reach yours, and you can find the hope and strength our people still have in them. Right is right, and justice is justice. All people are equal, and no race or color is superior above the others.

    We urge you all to do something to save our kids and their future, and treat us as human beings who have the right to have a decent life.

    We expect the UNHCR to immediately take measures to address these demands. The process of granting prima facie status to Afghan refugees must be fast-tracked. Anything less is unacceptable and will be met with continued public protests and action, including legal action, against the UNHCR.

    We fear the day when our refugees, despondent about their prospects here, decide to go to the EU en masse. Thus, it is a need that your office takes urgent measures to solve these problems. We think it is time that your office rightly addresses this issue before it is too late. Otherwise, we will ask the international community to help Afghan refugees to change the political line of the UNHCR.

    We will ask workers of the UN, the UNHCR and other workers of different institutions in different countries to show their support to Afghan refugees.

    We hope to see some positive changes about the problems and concerns we have raised here. Thank you in advance for considering this open letter in a positive way; otherwise, we will be compelled to send it all of human rights organizations and the UNHCR headquarters.

    In conclusion, we thank you for taking the time to hear our views and beliefs. We are eagerly awaiting your response, and hope dearly that no legal action will need to be taken.

    Sincerely,

    Coordination Group of Afghan Refugees in Turkey

    Turkey

  • Syria’s state TV director tells BBC ‘refugees’ just visiting family in Turkey

    Syria’s state TV director tells BBC ‘refugees’ just visiting family in Turkey

    Reem Haddad puts spin on the desperate attempt of hundreds of locals to flee Jisr al-Shughour before government clampdown

    Esther Addley
    guardian.co.uk

    Reem Haddad

    Reem Haddad acts as Syria's information ministry spokeswoman and has tried to portray the emerging humanitarian crisis as 'normal'.
    Reem Haddad acts as Syria's information ministry spokeswoman and has tried to portray the emerging humanitarian crisis as 'normal'.

    She may look like the actor Isla Fisher and speak like a Mayfair lady who lunches, but appearances – and words – can be deceptive. As hundreds of refugees fled the Syrian border town Jisr al-Shughour on Thursday, desperate to avoid an expected government clampdown after the killing earlier this week of 120 soldiers, Reem Haddad , the director of Syria’s state TV network, gave an interview to the BBC to account for the crowds pouring into Turkey.

    Many have relatives in villages just the other side of the border, she said. “A lot of them find it easy to move across because their relatives are there. It’s a bit like having a problem in your street, and your mum lives in the next street, so you go and visit your mum for a bit.”

    As Syria’s security and humanitarian crisis escalates, Haddad, who acts as a spokeswoman for the country’s information ministry, has become one of the most familiar faces of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, with a talent for insisting on innocent explanations for the brutal government response to the protests.

    In this she has drawn comparisons to Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, whose exuberant insistence on behalf of Saddam Hussein’s government that the Iraqi army was invincible earned him the nickname Comical Ali before the 2003 allied invasion.

    Little is known about Haddad’s early career to date, though her father served as Syria’s ambassador to East Germany and is said to have modelled Syria’s secret police on the Stasi.

    “I don’t think she believes all of what she’s saying, though I think she believes some of it,” Amr al-Azm, a former colleague at a Damascus language school in the early 1990s, told the Times. “She believes there’s a war here between two ideologies, two groups, and she believes she’s on the right side.”

    Would the government allow the gathering protesters to make their demonstrations peacefully, she was asked by al-Jazeera in late April.

    There were no demonstrators, she said. On the contrary, said the journalist, many people on the ground were reporting gathering crowds.

    “I know, you have this ‘eyewitness phenomenon’ thing,” replied Haddad. “But we have our cameras everywhere and we have seen no gathering at all.” In principle, however, demonstrations were permitted. “But they have to apply for a licence and they have to tell the police, and the police will tell them along which routes they should follow, and how long they should demonstrate and how many people there should be.”

    The same broadcaster, some weeks later, asked about 500 civilians thought to have been shot dead by security forces in street protests (that figure is now more than 1,000). “How do you know that sir, may I ask?” replied Haddad. “How do you know that 500 people have been shot dead, where is your information coming from?” It was a figure compiled by human rights organisations in Syria and London, among others, said the journalist.

    “But my dear they are sitting in London. How can they confirm anything!” The world should confirm its facts independently, said the spokeswoman, “rather than taking shoddy, shoddy if I may say, eyewitness accounts.” As Haddad well knows, all foreign journalists are banned from Syria.

    via Syria’s state TV director tells BBC ‘refugees’ just visiting family in Turkey | World news | The Guardian.

  • Turkey Worries Syria’s Refugee Influx Could Cause Crisis

    Turkey Worries Syria’s Refugee Influx Could Cause Crisis

    Hundreds of Syrian refugees have fled across the border into Turkey to escape the ongoing crackdown on anti-government protests. The influx has added to growing Turkish concerns that the deepening crisis in Syria could lead to the country facing a refugee crisis.

    Nearly 250 Syrians recently crossed into Turkey seeking refuge.

    Some belong to Syria’s Turkish minority, like this woman:

    “My husband and I came because of the situation there,” she said. “Four people were killed in front of his eyes. So we ran away. All our lives are in danger.”

    The refugees were housed in an indoor sports stadium, while a tent village was constructed by the Red Crescent Society.

    With the crisis in Syria continuing to deepen, Turkish authorities are bracing themselves for more arrivals.

    Turkish President Abdullah Gul, speaking on Monday, said Turkey is preparing to deal with a possible influx of refugees, saying authorities are taking measures to be ready for the worst-case scenario.

    There are no entry restrictions on Syrians entering Turkey, following last year’s lifting of visa requirements by both countries.

    Senior Turkish diplomat Selim Yenel says despite the crisis, there are no plans to suspend the agreement, at least for now.

    “No, No, No, we hope this will not be the case, we are not in that situation right now,” said Yenel. “We do hope things will go on peacefully. That we are in close contact with Damascus. We are talking with them. And we are following things very closel, and therefore such a thing to happen.”

    But its not only a potential refugee crisis that is causing increasing concern in Ankara. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced his fear of a potential break up of Syria.

    “Turkey definitely does not want a separation of Syria, said Prime Minister Erdogan. “And Syria should not allow any attempts that could pave the way for separation.”

    Syria, like Turkey, has a restive Kurdish minority. Since 1984, the Turkish-based Kurdish rebel group, the PKK, has been fighting the Turkish state for greater cultural and political rights. According to international relations expert and columnist for a Turkish daily, Soli Ozel, the chaos in Syria offers the PKK a powerful impetus, especially as it has close ties with Syria’s own large Kurdish minority.

    “Now a third of the fighters of PKK happened to be from Syria,” said Ozel. “If the country divides along sectarian or ethnic lines, possibility of a Kurdish desire for an independence in the north of Syria obviously is going to throw Turkey off balance.”

    Turkey’s 800-kilometer border with Syria runs along its predominantly Kurdish southeast. And most of Syria’s Kurdish minority lives just on the other side of it.

    According to analysts, Syrian President Bashir al-Assad has controlled his own Kurdish population with an iron fist. He is widely believed to be playing on Turkish fears that if that fist were relaxed, the Kurds would secede. But Syrian opposition groups are keen to stress that is just scaremongering.

    Anas Abdah is head of the international branch of Damascus Declaration, an opposition umbrella group.

    “Think this is very important for the Turkish people and Turkish leadership to understand, the fact that the Kurdish element in Syria, which is around 2 million, or about 9 percent of the population is not going to react in a way, which will mean a secession of Syrian land or any kind of problems with the neighbor, either Turkey or Iraq,” said Anas Abdah.

    Political scientist Nuray Mert is suspicious of such assurances. She thinks that spreading regional turmoil may offer Kurds across the whole region a unique opportunity.

    “Syrian Kurds are against the existing regime, the Iranian Kurds are against Ahmadinejad regime, and they may have some role in regime changes in the region,” said Nuray Mert. “And it empowers the PKK movement and Turkish Kurds’ political movement. Because anyway we have huge problems concerning Kurdish problem in Turkey.”

    Observers warn that the prospect of Kurds in neighboring Iran and Syria, freed from oppressive regimes and joining their Iraqi counterparts, who already have substantial autonomy, could rekindle the dream for many Turkish Kurds of an independent state. For Ankara, that would be a nightmare.

    via Turkey Worries Syria’s Refugee Influx Could Cause Crisis | Middle East | English VOA