Keynote
Ambassador Mehmet Kemal Bozay
Permanent Delegate of Turkey to the EU

Ambassador Ioannis Vrailas
Permanent Representative of Greece to the EU

Speakers
M. Murat Erdoğan, Chair, Turkish German University

Nihal Eminoğlu
Assistant Professor and Lecturer, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University

Laura Batalla Adam
Secretary General, EU-Turkey Forum

Kemal Kirişci
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings

Günter Seufert
Head of the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies, SWP

Moderator
Kadri Tastan
Senior Fellow, GMF, IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellow, CATS-SWP

The onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011 forced millions of people to flee to neighboring states and Europe. Consequently, Turkey and the European Union faced the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War.

Five years have passed since the EU-Turkey Migration Statement was agreed on March 18, 2016. The Statement attempted to synchronously stop the irregular flow of migration and human suffering in the Aegean Sea. It has been observed to represent an example of the EU’s externalization politics. For Turkey, it has been both a means of eliciting support for refugees and a tool for political rapprochement with the EU. Dissatisfaction over the EU’s failure to deliver some of the deal’s provisions along with President Erdogan’s longstanding threat to open the borders, have prompted tentative talks on the future of the agreement.

The report entitled “The Syrian Crisis, 18 March 2016 Turkey EU-Deal and Next Future: The Perceptions of European and Turkish Stakeholders” explores the problems experienced, the opportunities for a new framework, how the agreement could affect EU-Turkey relations, and recommendations for a sustainable EU-Turkey migration cooperation.