Suriye’de 2011 yılında başlayan iç savaş sonrasında komşu ülke Türkiye’ye zorunlu ve kitlesel olarak göç hareketi başlamış ve göç eden nüfus hızla artmıştır. İlk zamanlar geçici kalıcılık olarak görülen bu süreç zamanla kalıcı geçicilik durumuna dönüşmüştür. Medya yayın organlarında ve alanyazında Türkiye’ye sığınan Suriyeliler; göçmen, sığınmacı, mülteci, yabancı gibi terimlerle yer almaktadır. Ancak bu terimlerin hukuki statüleri birbirinden farklıdır. Bu araştırma, Suriye göçü sonrasında Türkiye’de yapılan yasal düzenlemeleri açıklamak, Türkiye’deki Suriyelilerin kimlik statülerini betimlemek ve göç literatüründeki terim karmaşasının önüne geçerek göç terminolojisine katkıda bulunmak amacıyla gerçekleştirilmiştir. Nitel araştırma tekniklerinden doküman incelemesi yoluyla toplanan veriler, betimsel analiz yöntemiyle analiz edilmiştir. Suriye göçü sonrasında Yabancılar ve Uluslararası Koruma Kanunu ile Geçici Koruma Yönetmeliği çıkarılarak Türkiye’de yasal düzenlemelerin gerçekleştirildiği görülmektedir. Öte yandan Türkiye’de yaşayan Suriyeli kişilerin mülteci, sığınmacı, yabancı ve vatansız terimleri yerine kimlik statüleri bakımından hukuki bağlamda “Geçici Koruma Kapsamındaki Suriye Uyruklu Kişiler” veya “Geçici Koruma Kapsamındaki Kişiler” olarak tanımlanması gerektiği düşünülmektedir. Araştırma sonucunda Türkiye’deki Suriyelilerin alanyazında, ulusal ve uluslararası mevzuatlar bağlamındaki kimlik statüsü ile betimlenmesi ve Türkiye’ye yeni göç eden nüfusların da tanımlanmasına yönelik benzer çalışmaların yapılması önerilmektedir. 

The report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, published before World Refugee Day on June 20, shows the painful picture. According to the report, the number of people fleeing wars, human rights violations, conflicts, civil unrest and harsh living conditions in their countries has reached 79.5 million worldwide (UNHCR, 2019).After the civil war that began in 2011 in Syria, the movement of forced and mass migration to neighboring Turkey began and the migratory population increased rapidly. Considering the number of Syrians migrating to Turkey, it is seen that 3,723,674 people left their country and changed their places. Syrians who have taken refuge in Turkey are depicted in the media and literature in the form of terms such as migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and foreigners. However, the legal status of these terms is different from each other.This research was carried out in order to describe the legal arrangements made after the Syrian migration, the identification of Syrians in Turkey as identity status and to contribute to the terminology of migration by preventing the confusion of terms in the formation of the migration literature. For this reason, the legal regulations in Turkey carried out were explained in the research and the terms of migration were defined with national and international documents in terms of identity status.Research data were collected from qualitative research techniques through document review and analyzed by the method of description analysis.This study was carried out in order to describe the identity status of Syrians living in Turkey, to prevent term confusion in the migration literature and to contribute to the field terminology.Therefore, the research is a qualitative research based on the analysis of national and international legislation and institutional documents in the field of migration.The study explained the uncertainties for identifying millions of Syrians who have left their country as a result of mass migration from Syria in the context of relevant national and international legislation.The status of Syrians in Turkey can be summarized as follows: According to the settlement law, Turkish descendants; people who have stayed for more than a year according to the IOM’s Dictionary of Migration Terms are defined as migrants.However, Syrians in Turkey are not included in this scope. Although the vast majority of Syrians in Turkey are not of Turkish ancestry, there are also those who have stayed in Turkey for less than a year. Syrians in Turkey are not legally accepted as refugees because they do not come from European countries. In order to become an asylum seeker, they must be the person who has applied for asylum according to the IOM definition and is waiting for the result of the application. According to the regulation, it is clearly stated that applications for international protection will not be processed individually during the period in which temporary protection is applied (Temporary Protection Regulation, 2014). International types of protection include conditional refugee until resettlement in the third country by individual application and secondary protection for indefinite applications. However, since the migration from Syria is mass and the length of stay is uncertain, neither of these definitions fits the Syrians. Syrians in Turkey are not considered stateless due to their continued citizenship ties with the Syrian state. Some Syrians can enter and leave their countries during religious holidays and Syrian students in the senior year of high school can apply for the Foreign Student Exam for foreign nationals in Turkey by taking advantage of their Syrian citizenship rights. This situation shows that Syrians enjoy the rights granted to foreigners in Turkey. In addition, other status groups will be included in the recognition of foreign status, as the definition of foreigners covers many groups other than Syria, such as refugees, conditional refugees and stateless people who have no ties to the Republic of Turkey.