Europe's refugee/migrant crisis: can 'illiberal' Turkey save 'liberal Europe' while helping Syrian refugees? EPC Policy Brief, 19 February 2016

Turkish democracy today has lost much of its shine. As the Turkish government continues to backtrack on reforms and infringe on basic freedoms, the country is beginning to look more and more like an ‘illiberal democracy’ at best. Ironically, as one of the most important destination and transit countries for Syrian refugees, it is also still uniquely positioned to help the EU deal with the current refugee crisis. In November 2015, the EU and Turkey signed a Joint Action Plan to better manage the situation, but both parties have fallen short of their promises. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the biggest supporters of closer EU-Turkey cooperation, had hoped that this would allow for the refugees to be admitted into Europe in a more controlled and orderly manner. But it seems she is standing alone in a Europe that is becoming increasingly more hostile towards newcomers, drifting further and further from the liberal values it stands for. In this Policy Brief, Kemal Kirişci discusses the ways in which Turkey, Germany and the EU in general could all benefit from closer cooperation on this issue: “With the right frame of mind and will, the current ‘illiberal Turkey’ could indeed help ‘liberal Europe’. In the long run this would be a ‘win-win’ for Germany, Turkey, and the EU – but most importantly, for the Syrian refugees.

Video dizilerinden çoğul biyometrik kimlik doğrulama = combining face and voice modalities for person verification from video sequences

In this paper, a multimodal person verification system is presented. The system is based on face and voice modalities. Fusion of information derived from each modality is performed at the matching swre level using sum rule. For face verification statistical subspace tools are utilized as feature exhactors. For speaker verification, me1 frequency cepstral coefficients are used as features and gaussian mixture models are used for modeling. Various wmbination cases are hied in the experiments and the results show that for each case the wmbined modalities performs betfer than the single modality

A Persuasive Peace: Syrian Refugees' Attitudes Towards Compromise and Civil War Termination

Civilians who have fled violent conflict and settled in neighboring countries are integral to processes of civil war termination. Contingent on their attitudes, they can either back peaceful settlements or support warring groups and continued fighting. Attitudes toward peaceful settlement are expected to be especially obdurate for civilians who have been exposed to violence. In a survey of 1,120 Syrian refugees in Turkey conducted in 2016, we use experiments to examine attitudes towards two critical phases of conflict termination – a ceasefire and a peace agreement. We examine the rigidity/flexibility of refugees’ attitudes to see if subtle changes in how wartime losses are framed or in who endorses a peace process can shift willingness to compromise with the incumbent Assad regime. Our results show, first, that refugees are far more likely to agree to a ceasefire proposed by a civilian as opposed to one proposed by armed actors from either the Syrian government or the opposition. Second, simply describing the refugee community’s wartime experience as suffering rather than sacrifice substantially increases willingness to compromise with the regime to bring about peace. This effect remains strong among those who experienced greater violence. Together, these results show that even among a highly pro-opposition population that has experienced severe violence, willingness to settle and make peace are remarkably flexible and dependent upon these cues

Will the readmission agreement bring the EU and Turkey together or pull them apart? CEPS Commentary, 4 February 2014

Following a period when EU-Turkish relations have not been particularly close, the readmission agreement signed in December 2013 by the Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoglu could help inject some sorely needed goodwill and trust into the relationship. Yet, as pointed out in this commentary, there is always the risk that the challenges faced in the actual implementation of the agreement will aggravate the relationship

“Three Way Approach” to Meeting the Challenges of Migrant Incorporation in the European Union: Reflections from a Turkish Perspective

Euro-Mediterranean Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM)This paper advocates the idea that the European Union’s “two way process” approach to migration and integration should boldly be replaced by the notion of a “three way” approach for the better incorporation of immigrants in the EU. The first part of the paper outlines the emergence of a “common” immigration and integration policy at the EU level, its main features and in particular the role of the European Commission in shaping this policy. The second part critically examines the place that is attributed to sending countries in efforts to draw up a “common” immigration and integration policy. Particular emphasis is laid on the ways the EU defines and frames the place and function of “sending countries” in its immigration policy. In the last section, the role that sending countries could play in the context of a “three way” approach to integration is explored against the background of the Turkish experience. In this section, the author makes various concrete suggestions in support of a “three way” approach whose aim is to assist Turkish immigrants’ integration into mainstream life within the EU

Turkey in the EU Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. CEPS EU-Turkey Working Papers No. 3, 1 August 2004

This paper assesses issues of border controls, visa regimes, asylum and irregular immigration policies in context of Turkey’s candidacy for accession to the EU. Under present EU policy, Turkey would need to apply all present legislation governing the movement of persons across the external frontiers of the Schengen area by the time of accession, although the frontier between Turkey and the Schengen area would not be eliminated for some years, as is also the case for the new member states which acceded in May 2004. A certain degree of flexibility as regards the application of the EU/Schengen border and visa regimes is advisable taking into consideration the economic and political interests and sensitivities of both Turkey and the EU in relation to their common external neighbourhood. This report therefore evaluates various special regimes such as those adopted by Spain and Portugal, and the European Commission’s proposal for facilitating local border traffic – the latter in the light of the recent experience of sharply curtailed movements across the Polish-Ukrainian border. Finally, the Bulgarian experience in the field of justice and home affairs will be reviewed as a possible model for Turkey in its progress towards EU accession

Informal "circular migration" into Turkey: The bureaucratic and political context

Euro-Mediterranean Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM

Border Management and EU-Turkish Relations: Convergence or Deadlock

Euro-Mediterranean Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM)European Commission, EuropeAid Cooperation Office, RSCA

Managing Irregular Migration in Turkey: a political-bureaucratic Perspective

Euro-Mediterranean Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM)The paper, which tackles the Turkish experience of irregular migration, will be divided into three sections. The first section will examine the background and nature of irregular migration in Turkey: foreign nationals, mostly from neighboring countries, who overstay their visa and/or are illegally employed; transit migrants from various countries whose primary aim is to make their way into the European Union (EU); trafficking victims women who have been forced into prostitution and are then apprehended; and lastly rejected or stranded asylum seekers. The second section of the paper will examine the policies of the Turkish government towards these different groups of “irregular migrants”. This section will argue that the government follows a differentiated policy and that these policies are a function of different factors. It will also examine the role of non-governmental organizations. The last section will examine the issue of “irregular migration” in the context of EU-Turkish relations. The paper argues that these relations are marked by deep mistrust and that this mistrust is likely to remain in the foreseeable future. One of the major sources of mistrust is the conviction among Turkish officials that the EU wants to use Turkey as a “buffer zone” and/or a “dumping ground” for irregular migrants. Additionally Turkish officials are also concerned about the way in which the EU compels neighboring countries to manage their borders in a manner that adversely affects these countries’ relations with Turkey. In other words, as the EU tries to strengthen “fortress Europe”, Turkey’s interests and security are adversely affected. The paper will conclude by arguing that both the EU and Turkey have an interest in taking each other’s interests and security seriously