Illegal migration as a hybrid warfare practice: The case of the Republic of Cyprus

Abstract

In our changing world, the phenomenon of migration is an ongoing process due to the need of those people to get a better life. Migration has different dimensions, it can include individuals who are seeking asylum, for an improvement of their economic or social status. The phenomenon of globalisation, which is an unstoppable process, has created new realities for the international system. The balances between war and peace are obscure and as a result many times the human pain is being utilised as a weapon for the states to achieve their strategic interests. The western developed definition of Hybrid warfare can conclude what "instrumentalization" of migration refers to. It becomes apparent that migration has become one of the most powerful weapons for the arsenal of states and non-state actors to pressure, achieve or exploit other opponents from their strategic interests. Turkey has utilised the status quo in Cyprus and the illegality of the so-called "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", to achieve its interest in the island. The undeclared hybrid war is being performed through the massive illegal migration flows from "TRNC" to the Republic of Cyprus by crossing the RoC. Turkey and "TRNC" have a protagonistic role to the instrumentalization and the formulation of this process, having the...