Fatma Nur Yavuz

An Analysis of the Socio-Economic Impacts of the Syrian Refugee Crisis on Turkey Fatma Nur Yavuz

March 15, 2011, marks the beginning of the Syrian civil war, a conflict that caused the death of thousands of Syrians and a displacement of over half of the population, internally as well as globally. Peaceful protests in the region, inspired by the Arab Spring, were conducted by pro-democracy Syrians in the hope of decreasing unemployment and corruption and of gaining political freedom. But they were quickly turned into brutality, resulting in the greatest movement of migrants after World War II. Fatma Nur has surveyed through three different lenses the impacts of the Syrian refugee crisis on Turkey, answering questions on how the Turkish government has responded to this crisis, to what extent the Syrian refugees have been affected by the social response when trying to integrate in Turkey, along with how and why the social response of Turkish nationals towards them has changed over time. Since this is not a problem to be solved only by Turkey, the author would like to invite all international governmental and non-governmental actors to take concrete and effective measures to bring this humanitarian disaster to an end as soon as possible.