By its very nature migration constitutes a transnational phenomenon, affecting various geographies, transit or end-destination countries, occasionally gravely. This study focuses on refugees’ flows. Namely, refugee flows from the Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean regions towards European countries, which however, originate from externally caused and indeed imposed “endless wars”. External state-destruction practices by NATO members, inter alia, have been going on in the region at least since 2003, with the invasion of Iraq, and are currently accentuated acutely. To grapple with the syndrome of such incited, complicated international and transnational problems, I retrace the sequence of war events that triggered mass eradication and the original fleeing of main refugees’ hordes and subsequently follow their changing fates and life trajectories. Then, I highlight relevant national border conflicts through the lens of refugees’ management and instrumentalizing and their dire “utility adventures”. In this respect, I assess the key international humanitarian part, which was formally assigned to Turkey by the EU, following which Turkey holds centre stage in this frame. Ever since, it has acquired crucial power via refugee hosting, handling or even blackmailing with. Through this process Turkey became the de facto host of circa four million of dislocated individuals, mostly refugees from Syria, Iraq and Libya, who are unwelcome elsewhere. I observe that by dealing with such hugely burdensome “collateral damage”, indeed, the humanitarian disaster of “other countries’ wars”, gave Turkey a unique opportunity to acquire a powerful role in negotiating with important international actors through instrumentalization of refugees systematically. The study documents modes employed in performing such tasks, including investigation of manipulative stances and instances of instrumentalizing refugees. In this respect, analysis suggests a transformation in Turkey’s standing, in its relationship with involved counterparts, but also with refugees themselves. Turkey’s tactics in handling refugees as a means of negotiation leverage not only explain but also prove that country’s strategic advances to elicit power and prevail as a major regional power. Conversely, passive, absentee or belated reactive moves were observed on the part of key actors such as NATO and the EU. What prevails, then, on this side is a policy aversion or paralysis, especially on the part of the Union, resulting effectively in an inability to defend EU interests, its border-countries and hence its territorial integrity. Hence, the study infers that incapacity to pre-empt deterioration of refugee humanitarian disasters, at the stage of inception, is crucial both for state self-defence and also for international law principles. Overall, the combination of EU policy and non-policy outcomes has resulted in debilitating international law and in intensifying lawless recklessness.

Instrumentalizing Refugees: Turkey, Greece and the European Union

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发表日期：

2025年

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Sophia Kaitatzi-Whitlock

摘要

By its very nature migration constitutes a transnational phenomenon, affecting various geographies, transit or end-destination countries, occasionally gravely. This study focuses on refugees’ flows. Namely, refugee flows from the Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean regions towards European countries, which however, originate from externally caused and indeed imposed “endless wars”. External state-destruction practices by NATO members, inter alia, have been going on in the region at least since 2003, with the invasion of Iraq, and are currently accentuated acutely. To grapple with the syndrome of such incited, complicated international and transnational problems, I retrace the sequence of war events that triggered mass eradication and the original fleeing of main refugees’ hordes and subsequently follow their changing fates and life trajectories. Then, I highlight relevant national border conflicts through the lens of refugees’ management and instrumentalizing and their dire “utility adventures”. In this respect, I assess the key international humanitarian part, which was formally assigned to Turkey by the EU, following which Turkey holds centre stage in this frame. Ever since, it has acquired crucial power via refugee hosting, handling or even blackmailing with. Through this process Turkey became the de facto host of circa four million of dislocated individuals, mostly refugees from Syria, Iraq and Libya, who are unwelcome elsewhere. I observe that by dealing with such hugely burdensome “collateral damage”, indeed, the humanitarian disaster of “other countries’ wars”, gave Turkey a unique opportunity to acquire a powerful role in negotiating with important international actors through instrumentalization of refugees systematically. The study documents modes employed in performing such tasks, including investigation of manipulative stances and instances of instrumentalizing refugees. In this respect, analysis suggests a transformation in Turkey’s standing, in its relationship with involved counterparts, but also with refugees themselves. Turkey’s tactics in handling refugees as a means of negotiation leverage not only explain but also prove that country’s strategic advances to elicit power and prevail as a major regional power. Conversely, passive, absentee or belated reactive moves were observed on the part of key actors such as NATO and the EU. What prevails, then, on this side is a policy aversion or paralysis, especially on the part of the Union, resulting effectively in an inability to defend EU interests, its border-countries and hence its territorial integrity. Hence, the study infers that incapacity to pre-empt deterioration of refugee humanitarian disasters, at the stage of inception, is crucial both for state self-defence and also for international law principles. Overall, the combination of EU policy and non-policy outcomes has resulted in debilitating international law and in intensifying lawless recklessness.