SEESOX’s Programme on Contemporary Turkey had produced many intriguing seminars and a highly essential workshop, which matched the current turmoil in the country during the 2016-17 academic year. There were several themes to the events that the Programme held. The first one was the EU-Turkey deal on Syrian refugees.
Gerald Knaus, founding chairman of the European Stability Initiative and father of the EU-Turkey Deal, gave a well-attended lunchtime seminar on 19 October 2016, with Ezgi Başaran in the chair. The main focus of discussion was whether the parties could properly implement the deal. Knaus underlined that a liberal policy on borders and asylum in Europe should be based on the protection of the integrity of the Refugee Convention and its Article 33. Knaus also criticised those European states who saw trapping refugees in Greece, and closing the Balkan route, as a solution.
Knaus reminded that there was no issue of law as such, some human rights organizations had stated, since the law in Turkey was in fact very good, and the agreement was a statement rather than a law. However, the problem was one of implementation and resources, particularly the inadequate number of translators and interpreters. Finally, he praised Turkey’s efforts, recalling that Europe had an interest in Turkey’s maintaining the rule of law, and defended the idea that visa liberation should be linked directly to Turkey’s success in ensuring it was a safe third country.