Because I have no work to speak of at my organization, I want to spend my remaining blog posts socializing pieces of some original research that I have undertaken since early June. It makes sense, then, to begin with a quick overview of the how the region has been impacted by ongoing fighting in Syria before addressing the scope and limitations of the research itself:
Introduction
Since late 2011, the civil war in Syria
has grown to such proportions that spectators increasingly warn of region-wide
turmoil on several planes – political instability, military intervention, and
humanitarian disaster. Concerned heads of Middle Eastern states continue to
steel their administrations and electorate for the worst to come, which -- for
Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey – has come to mean an outflow of Syrians seeking
shelter and safety that, at the extreme, could lead to both the collapse of
public services and increased military involvement in the Syrian theatre, two
spillover effects that no country can reasonably manage in the long-term.
The degree to which each country has been exhausted by the influx of Syrian refugees differs from country to country, with Turkey fairing slightly better than its Middle Eastern counterparts, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. As of May/June 2013, UNHCR reports the following figures for registered Syrians in surrounding countries: 500,654 in Lebanon, 472,764 in Jordan, 372,326 in Turkey, and 154,372 in Iraq; an accurate number of unregistered Syrians living within these countries is not currently known.[1] If Syria continues to slide into a state of protracted conflict, UNHCR predicts that conditions on the ground will force over half of Syria’s population into dependence on foreign aid by the end of 2013[2], a grim reality that few could have predicted during the initial onset of tensions.
Scope of Inquiry
This inquiry will focus entirely on
Turkey’s response to the growing refugee* crisis within its borders through a
gender lens. More specifically, this research will squarely assess the degree
to which the Turkish Red Crescent (TRC), in close partnership with the Government
of Turkey (GoT), has addressed the unique needs of Syrian women and men living
within the 19 camps established in border regions near Syria. I acknowledge
that the humanitarian crisis unfolding within Turkey bears several close
connections with similar crises facing Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and to a lesser
extent, Israel, but a region-wide analysis of the conflict through a gender
lens is too broad to be fruitful.
The simple answer to why I have focused my research on Turkey alone is that I was awarded a Conflict Resolution Summer Program Fellowship through Georgetown University to intern at the Turkish Red Crescent for Summer 2013. I assumed prior to departure that as an intern, I would have helpful access to internal memos and documentation and would be able to speak freely and directly with TRC personnel in ways that would support sound research for the independent project of assessing the degree to which GoT/TRC understands and addresses gender- and conflict-specific needs of Syrians living in Turkey.
Because this research seeks to understand how well programs have addressed Syrians’ needs from a gender perspective, and a gender perspective “highlights women’s capacities and can indicate where opportunities are missed by relief interventions for making aid more effective by supporting women’s skills and capacities”[3], the research will ultimately seek to answer questions about the degree to which Syrian women have been both empowered and disadvantaged by programs developed and implemented by the GoT/TRC. It should be noted that while a comprehensive and responsible gender analysis demands the inclusion of how a conflict has impacted the capacities and vulnerabilities of men, the main focus of this paper will be on Syrian women living within camps, not least because women and children make up approximately 75% of camp resident populations and it is much more difficult (though no less important) to assess how Syrian men have been affected by this conflict because there is a high degree of mobility for men who move freely from the camps back to Syria to fight.[4]
A comprehensive analysis of the difficulties faced by Syrians living outside of Turkish camps lies beyond the scope of this research, but it will be useful to reference the wildly different realities of Syrians inside camps versus Syrians outside camps in order to better understand the GoT’s overall response to Syrians seeking refuge in Turkey. It will also be important to address some questions related to how ignoring the vast population of urban Syrians might impact more vulnerable groups – like women – in ways that have been carefully documented in Lebanon and Jordan.
Despite this paper’s primary focus on Syrians living within the camps, there is a desperate need to better understand the realities of urban individuals, particularly because the level of coordinated assistance outside the camps is significantly lower than inside the camps. As quantitative data is difficult to come by and Turkish officials have only recently started counting Syrians living in border cities and towns, the working estimate of how many Syrians currently reside unofficially outside of the camps is around 200,000, a figure that is much larger than the number of registered Syrians living within refugee camps.
This research covers program
implementation from the start of the conflict in October 2011 up until the
present and includes predictions and extrapolated analysis of future programming
for camps that have not yet been built but are scheduled to come into being in
the next 6-12 months.
[1] UNHCR Regional Response Plan 5. January to December 2013.
*The term “refugee” is not accurate in terms of the legal
protections and status the GoT affords displaced Syrians seeking shelter within
Turkey. Instead, the government has enacted a regime of “temporary protection”
to describe the range of protections available to Syrians, which, in real
terms, guarantees the right of asylum and freedom from forced returns but
denies legal access to transfer to third countries as UN recognized refugees,
legal employment, and education. However, for ease of readership, the term
“refugee” will be used throughout to describe Syrians living in camps as well
as urban areas.
[2] Martin Chulov. “Half of Syrian population ‘will need aid by
end of year’. The Guardian. Available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/19/half-syrian-population-aid-year. April 19, 2013.
[3] Bridget Byrne and Sally Baden. “Gender, Emergencies and
Humanitarian Assistance,” Bridge, Institute of Development Studies, University
of Sussex, 1995, p. 10.
[4] UNHCR Regional Response Plan 5. “Turkey.” January to
December 2013. P. 212.
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