LEGAL DISPUTES: EXPERIENCED BY THE BALKAN MIGRANTS IN TURKEY

Abstract

In terms of "migration" which is a concept dating back to the history of humanity,Turkey plays an important role as a transit country for the migrants, as being located on the migratory route of Middle East and Central Asia and also as acountry letting in migrants from these regions along with the muslims and Turkish descendants from the Balkans due to many reasons. The problems of the migrants are not resolved upon their arrival in the country allowing the migration, on the contrary, these people face with new problems therein. Legal disputes experienced by the Balkan Migrants in Turkey, which is the subject of this study, have been considered with regard to the concrete examples of Bulgarian migrants.The arrivals of Bulgarian migrants to Turkey took place in various periods and few of these migrations were planned but as the majority of these were unplanned andmassive, the number of the problems, which were faced, increased. The migrations realized between 1923 - 1933 were planned and there were not many problems regarding especially the accomodation and habitation, as Turkey had been prepared for this. During the following periods, it is seen that the migrants faced problems due to the outbreak of planned migrations, in spite of Turkey's good will.Especially, the efforts of the Government to provide housing for the migrants of 1989 failed and the migrants were distressed. Although the legal remedy proposed for the relief of this distress was not sufficient, upon the decree of annulment by the Constitutional Court, further distress of the migrants was prevented.The "retirement" issue experienced by the migrants of 1989 regarding social security was tried to be resolved by the decisions of the Council of State and the Supreme Court of Appeals at first and later a more solid solution was generated upon the amendment in the related legislations.Regarding the resolution of the mentioned problems of the migrants, the significance of the support of both High Courts can be seen. The decisions of the these courts constitute the most important part of this study.The majority of the problems faced by the migrants is related to the country they come from and the solution depends on the negotiations between Turkey and Bulgaria.