Afghan crisis, migration diplomacy and Turkey-EU relations

Turkey builds wall

Afghan crisis, migration diplomacy and Turkey-EU relations

Wednesday, 27 October 2021 - 5:00pm
Venue: 
Seminar Room/Hybrid webinar
Speaker(s): 
Franck Duvell (Universitat Osnabrück)
Başak Kale (METU)
Kemal Kirişci (Brookings Institution)
Chair: 
Othon Anastasakis (St Antony’s College, Oxford) and Mehmet Karlı (St Antony’s College, Oxford)
Series: 
SEESOX

Organised as part of the research programme ‘Migration Diplomacy and Turkey-EU Relations’ funded by the Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership

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The much-criticized 2016 EU-Turkey Deal on migration has effectively run its course. While the deal managed to reduce the numbers of refugees entering the EU and providing around Euro 6 billion assistance to Turkey, it has failed in its other promises like visa-free travel for Turkish citizens and the modernization of the customs union. Although each party has been accusing the other of failing to meet its obligations under the Deal, there, nevertheless, appears to be a willingness on both sides to continue the arrangement. 
   Since 2020, the EU and Turkey have been negotiating to hammer out a follow-up deal. The Afghan crisis of summer 2021, the resulting flow of Afghan refugees into Turkey and Turkish decision makers’ increasing statements calling out the EU for failing to share the burden of hosting refugees have accentuated the need to reach a new agreement. Under these circumstances, migration diplomacy between the EU and Turkey eclipses all other issues in the agenda of EU-Turkey relations. This provokes the criticism that EU-Turkey relations have become increasingly transactional, mono-dimensional and devoid of any principled framework. This seminar will review the current state of migration diplomacy between the EU and Turkey, examine whether the Deal may continue and how it should -or should not- continue and evaluate the impact of the currently prevailing transactionalism over the EU-Turkey relations in general.

Othon Anastasakis, Director of South East European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX)
Dr Anastasakis is a Senior Research Fellow at St Antony’s College; Associate at the Department of Politics and International Relations; Affiliate of the Centre for International Studies; Affiliate of the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA); former Director of the European Studies Centre, St Antony's College, Oxford (July 2012-October 2015). He teaches “South East European politics and European integration” for the OSGA and “EU politics” for the Department of Continuing Education, Oxford. He is currently the Principal Investigator of two research projects: “Greek Diaspora Project at SEESOX”; and the OX/BER funded “Migration Diplomacy and Turkey-EU relations”. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada; Region Head of Europe in Oxford Analytica. He received his BA in Economics from the University of Athens, his MA in Compara

Franck Duvell, Senior Researcher, Osnabruck University
Senior researcher, Centre for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS), Osnabruck University, Germany. Previously, he was associate professor and senior researcher at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) (2006-2018) at University of Oxford and head of the migration department at German Institute for Integration and Migration Research (DeZM), Berlin (2018-2020). He also acted as senior researcher for ICMPD, Amsterdam Economics, was consultant for IOM, OSCE, CEval and many others and is senior advisor to PICUM. He has 25 years of experience in higher education and research. He mainly works on irregular, transit and forced migration, with some focus on Turkey and Ukraine, and on global, European and national migration control and governance. He conducted over 25 research projects (e.g. IAPASIS, Clandestino, Eumagine, MedMig, DIEM, CrossMigration etc) and has around 100 academic publications. 

Başak Kale, Associate Professor of International Relations & Chair of European Studies Program, Middle East Technical University, Ankara
Başak Kale is the Chair of European Studies and the coordinator of the Migration Research Program (METUMIR) of the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence Center for European Studies, METU. She is also an Associate Professor of International Relations. She also holds affiliated positions at the Institute of European Studies, University of British Columbia (UBC) and the UBC Migration Research Excellence Cluster, Vancouver. In addition to these positions, she is an independent ethics expert working for the European Commission at the Ethics and Research Integrity Sector, DG Research and Innovation. Dr. Kale is a specialist on European integration, Turkey-EU relations, politics of international migration, and research ethics. She taught and conducted research at various institutions including Harvard University, UC Berkeley, Boğaziçi University and Hitotshubashi University (Tokyo).

Mehmet Karlı, Co-ordinator of Programme on Contemporary Turkey, SEESOX, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford
Mehmet Karli is the Co-ordinator of the Programme on Contemporary Turkey, St Antony’s College, University Oxford and a principal investigator of the Migration Diplomacy and Turkey-EU Relations research project within the framework of the Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership. Previously, he has been an Assistant Professor of International Law at Galatasaray University Law Faculty, Director of the European Studies Centre at Galatasaray University, a Visiting Academic at SEESOX, St Antony’s College and a research associate of Centre for International Studies of the DPIR, University of Oxford. He teaches international law, international economic law (international trade and investment) and international human rights law. At Oxford, he taught the course on International law and the Middle East. Karli holds D.Phil, M.Phil and M.Jur degrees from the University of Oxford, Faculty of Law, and an LL.B. degree from the Faculty of Law of Galatasaray University. Karli is also a practicing lawyer focusing mainly on the resolution of international disputes and application of international law.

Kemal Kirişci, Nonresident Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center on the United States and Europe, The Turkey Project
Kemal Kirişci is a nonresident senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe's Turkey Project at Brookings, with an expertise in Turkish foreign policy and migration studies. From 2013 until 2020, he was TÜSİAD senior fellow at Brookings and director of the Turkey Project. Kirişci is a regular contributor to the Order from Chaos blog at Brookings.  His most recent book, “Turkey and the West: Faultlines in a Troubled Alliance,” was published by the Brookings Institution Press in November 2017. He is the co-author of the monograph "The Consequences of Chaos: Syria's Humanitarian Crisis and the Failure to Protect" (Brookings Institution Press, April 2016), which considers the long-term economic, political, and social implications of Syria's displaced and offers policy recommendations to address the humanitarian crisis.  Before joining Brookings, Kirişci was a professor of international relations and held the Jean Monnet chair in European integration in the department of political science and international relations at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. His areas of research interest include EU-Turkish relations, U.S.-Turkish relations, Turkish foreign and trade policies, European integration, immigration issues, ethnic conflicts, and refugee movements. 


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