The ultimate border between the East and the West

Abstract

The worst humanitarian crisis that we are currently watching has prompted to a rise of refugration flows in today’s globalised world. During the European refugrant crisis the EU external borders were under pressure and the EU had to find partners to help to secure its borders, as solidarity inside the EU was not enough to carry good management of the refugration flows that were arriving at EU doors. The EU-Turkey statement of 18 March 2016, permitted the EU and its member states to regain control of its Southeastern borders and it as turned Turkey into the ultimate border between the East and the West. As the EU is focused on containing and reducing the refugration flows at its external borders by all costs, it has forgotten to advocate for human rights in its neighbouring countries and to respect the human rights of the refugrants. Thus, this master thesis explored the role that the nexus between the border security and the refugration management plays at the EU-Turkey relations. In addition, it was explored how the EU-Turkey statement has affected the EC discourse regarding the deteriorating situation of human rights in Turkey. The study concludes that the EU-Turkey statement has been an important policy tool in promoting the refugration-border nexus in the EU-Turkey relations and that the EU-Turkey statement has affected the EC discourse about the current situation of human rights in Turkey.