From Walls Protecting People, to Walls Protecting States

Zuhal Karakoç Dora
Turkish Grand National Assembly

Abstract

Since the foundation of the world, human communities have developed sheltering and protection tools and corresponding defence and attack means against the attacks from outside. Constructing walls was one of the main methods of this. In this walls against enemies, Great Wall of China has a special place. However; the Wall that marked the last century is the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989, a symbol of political division in a global context. Yet, it is a coincidence that after the fall of the Berlin Wall, all the concepts of war and border became ambiguous. The world shrank, Samuel Huntington’s predictions began to come true, and more and more identity battles began to take place. Besides; after the Cold War, the modern World has brought to the forefront how to protect itself from the mass movements. There, now, have been uncontrolled humanitarian movements with even greater threats than the atomic missiles of the USA or the USSR. When the internal conflict in Syria, started in 2011, and then the internal proxy wars started to shake not only the neighbouring countries like Turkey, but also the whole of Europe; successive safekeeping measures emerged. Developed countries first strengthened their borders in order to combat the influx of refugees or irregular migration; and then, they tried to shift the problem out of Europe by creating buffer zones. The fact that the EU-Turkey relations after 2013, which loads shield mission to Turkey, is almost entirely rests on the refugee crisis, explains this situation best. In this study, when on the one hand discussing the Wall having been built over the eastern and south-eastern borders of Turkey in excess of 1,000 km.; on the other hand, we will try to analyse the financial support and mute dissent of the EU for this Wall. If Turkey had tried to construct such a Wall prior to 2011, it could have had very strong opposition and reaction from the EU. Yet, now, it is being supported. This study seeks to associate the process of the wall being constructed on the borders of Turkey with the walls of late history. While aiming to understand the new security concept of the European Union, we specifically care to explain what Turkey’s role is here. Key Words: Migration, security, the EU, Turkey, wall.

Presentation