Turkey's Geographical Limitation: The Legal Implications of an Eventual Lifting

Being a Contracting Party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its Protocol with geographical limitation, Turkey provides conditional refugee status, not refugee status, to persons feeling persecution as a result of events occurring outside Europe. This study focuses on the rights of conditional refugees under Turkish laws and questions whether these rights comply with or diverge from the rights of refugee under the Convention. It draws conclusions on the significance and challenging character of the identified divergences and on the changes that Turkey needs to make in its laws in case of an eventual lifting.