Republican People Party’s Policy Towards Syrian Refugees in Türkiye: An Example for Securitization by an Opposition Party

This study examines how Türkiye’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (RPP), framed Syrian refugees in its discourse between 2013 and 2017. Drawing on 2,171 documents, including parliamentary speeches, parliamentary questions, party group meetings, and official publications, a ‘qualitative content analysis’ was conducted using inductive coding and computer-assisted software. The findings reveal a dual discourse: while the RPP’s official publications highlight humanitarian values such as refugee rights and modern hosting standards, its oppositional discourse portrays refugees as security threats. Themes such as demographic change, public spending, public order, labour competition, citizenship, and health risks dominate this securitized framing. The study applies ‘securitization theory’ as an analytical framework to explain the RPP’s security-focused language while maintaining a normative stance in formal party texts. This duality illustrates how opposition parties, even those with progressive agendas, may employ exclusionary discourses under political pressure, contributing to the broader securitization of migration in democratic settings. These findings challenge conventional assumptions about the relationship between party ideology, power status, and securitization, and underscore the need to critically assess the complex role opposition parties play in shaping refugee discourse in democratic contexts.