In the 1980s, over a million Iranian asylum seekers transited through Turkey on their way west, most moving through irregular migration channels. While much has been made of Turkey’s evolving role in more recent refugee crises, this literature neglects the importance of the 1980s Iranian refugee migrations in shaping the global refugee system. By connecting the story of the international human rights movement to the Ankara office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this paper emphasizes the role of non-state actors. Based on research in the archives of the UNHCR, this paper argues that the UNHCR and Amnesty International used human rights as a tool to pressure Turkey to open its doors to Iranian refugees in the early 1980s, and that this tactic backfired when the West closed its own doors on refugees later in the decade. The result was the increased forcible return of refugees by Turkish authorities to Iran and newly restrictive asylum policies, which would shape refugee migrations through Turkey for decades. For millions of refugees, Turkey has served as transit hub on their journey west; in the 1980s, human rights hypocrisy made it a cul-de-sac.

在1980年代，超过一百万的伊朗寻求庇护者在他们向西的途中通过土耳其过境，其中大多数是通过不定期的移民渠道流动的。尽管人们对土耳其在最近的难民危机中不断发展的作用已作了很多论述，但这些文献忽略了1980年代伊朗难民迁移对塑造全球难民系统的重要性。通过将国际人权运动的故事与联合国难民事务高级专员（UNHCR）的安卡拉办事处联系起来，本文强调了非国家行为者的作用。根据对难民署档案的研究，本文认为难民署大赦国际利用人权作为手段，向土耳其施加压力，要求其在1980年代初向伊朗难民敞开大门，而这一策略适得其反。结果是土耳其当局强迫难民更多地返回伊朗，以及新的限制性庇护政策，这将影响数十年来通过土耳其的难民迁移。对于成千上万的难民来说，土耳其已成为其西行途中的过境枢纽。在1980年代，人权虚伪使它成为死胡同。