League of Nations' Refugee Operations through İstanbul: Back to the Origins of International Refugee Question

Year 2020, Volume: 51, 149 - 173, 08.12.2020

E. Tutku Vardağlı

Abstract

The key objective of this study is to understand the main predicaments of the contemporary international refugee management system by tracing back to the origins. Therefore, the modern day refugee question is searched through the League of Nations’ (LN) refugee operations. It is indicated that the palliative approach of the LN assuming the international refugee question in a vast area in the aftermath of the First World War (WWI) determined the international standards. Specifically, the operations of the League of Nations’ High Commissariat for Refugees (LNHCR) office in İstanbul are taken into close consideration as a case to delineate in depth. It is indicated that the state-centered structure of the international organizations is not capable of resolving the refugee question, which is indeed a transnational problem.

Keywords

League of Nations, refugee policy, İstanbul, Turkey, transnational

References

• League of Nations Archives, (LNA), Extract from Verbatim Record of 10th Meeting of the Assembly, 18.9.1922, letter from Nansen to the President, 48/23560/23548
• LNA, Resolution adopted by the Assembly at its meeting held on 19. 9.1922, 48/24439/23548
• LNA, Council 21st Session, 19.9.1922, 48/23560/23548