BORDER GOVERNANCE ON THE WAVES OF THE AEGEAN SEA: ACTORS, DISCOURSES AND PRACTICES

Abstract

The article provides an extensive empirical analysis of sovereign practices and border governance monitoring and controlling the clandestine migration in the Aegean Sea. By utilizing the notion of “wet ontology” that refers to the distinctive materiality of the sea shaping the nature of the modus operandi, the study analyzes the web of discourses, actual practices and technologies constituting the political space of the Aegean Sea. The article argues that the contextualized “wet ontology” of the Aegean Sea lays the ground for the production of certain governing tool for armed forces to legitimize their military actions of interceptions as a rescue mission. The strategy of intercepting in guise of rescue as a moderated violence is produced and materialized in different manners in Turkey and Greece. In the article, firstly the contextualized “wet ontology” of the Aegean Sea will distinctive be elaborated together with its spatial and juridical configuration that lead to particular power projections. Then, these particular power projections and interception techniques will be empirically discussed within the contexts of Turkey and Greece. The empirical data of the study is based on an ethnographic research design conducted in 2015-2018 in Greece (Lesbos) and Turkey.