“Syrian Refugee Crisis” Meeting at TEPAV ESI Founding Chair Gerald Knaus makes a presentation titled “Germany, Turkey and the Syrian Refugee Crisis”
ANKARA- The “Germany, Turkey and the Syrian Refugee Crisis” meeting co-organized by TEPAV and the European Stability Initiative (ESI) was held at TEPAV premises on Monday, November 2nd.
TEPAV Executive Director Güven Sak stressed in his opening speech that recent developments made the Syrian refugee crisis the top agenda item of the European public opinion and decision makers. Sak said: “I believe that this issue poses an important opportunity to re-launch a positive agenda between Turkey and the European Union. Restarting a dialogue on technical and concrete policies between the two parties after a long period will help accelerate EU’s dialogue with Turkey in the near future.”
Following Sak’s speech, ESI Founding Chair Gerald Knaus made a presentation titled “Germany, Turkey and the Syrian Refugee Crisis.” Knaus offered an overview of the Syrian refugees as a starter to his presentation and underlined that refugee crises pose both hazards and potentials for countries. Knaus noted that across the globe, mass migration has been going on from the south to the north over the past two decades, adding that a quarter o the 14.4mn refugees registered by the UNHCR are of Syrian origin. He stressed that Turkey is the biggest host country of the world with 1.6mn refugees, indicating geographical location as the most significant reason. Knaus pointed out that the asylum seekers in Turkey face less of a danger in the transit to Europe via Turkey’s borders rather than crossing the Mediterranean. “0.05% of immigrants crossing the Aegean lose their lives, whereas the figure is 2% among those who follow the Mediterranean route,” he said, adding:
“On the other hand, many of the developed nations choose to remain outside the refugee crises, due mainly to the fear that “the third world poor” that emerge out of their home countries will influx to the developed countries. There are top-level security measures on the borders of EU countries to tackle this. From 2009 to 2013, the EU countries have received some 100,000 immigrants per year. However, the massive Syrian influx from Turkey to Greece that started in 2015 following the Syrian civil war, contrary to expectations, is in fact on the rise.”
In his presentation, Knaus made the following points regarding the Syrian crisis:
“1- The Syrian crisis is an emergency.
2- The issue should be sharing the burden of the Syrian refugee crisis.
3- Aegean borders should be monitored together with Turkey.
4- Germany should assume the leadership.
5- It will be to Turkey’s benefit to help out Germany and Sweden.”
Arguing that Turkey, Germany and Greece are the key countries for the resolution of the problem, Knaus offered the following to-do list:
”1- Greece should declare Turkey as a safe third country.
2- Turkey should start to fully implement the readmission agreement with Greece.
3- Germany should receive 500,000 refugees from Turkey within a year.
4- The EU should abandon visa requirements imposed on Turkey.”
The presentation was followed by a Q&A session. Numerous ambassadors and members of the corps diplomatique attended the meeting, debating the level of involvement of the European Union in the resolution of the refugee crisis from the onset, whether realistic steps have been taken to tackle the issue and the roadmap to be followed from this point onwards.
Participants emphasized that the EU should engage in more active cooperation for a solution to the crisis, noting that not only Germany, but all EU-member Balkan countries, including Greece, on the transit route of refugees to Germany, should coordinate for a joint solution.
