Aşkın 237 situation has also led to the use of the Syrians as the subject of politicisation. The fact that the majority of the immigrants from Syria are Sunni Muslims is evaluated at different perspectives with the idea that the balance of political power6 created according to the population numbers in the country will be affected. In this aspect, in Lebanon, where the religious population has determined the sharing of political power, the Syrians are perceived as a danger to the existence of Christians, the threat of security to the existence of Shiites, and the economic threat to the Sunni Muslims. Lebanese politicians, therefore, support the return of Syrians to preserve the balance of population and politics in the country (Geha, 2018, p. 2-3), which leads to a reluctant policy for the citizenship and registration. Lebanon is also a member of the following agreements, which will also support the agreement of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). However, Lebanon is not part of an agreement that commits refugee and citizenship rights in the international arena, such as The 1951 Refugee Convention (UNHCR), 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which will make refugee and citizenship rights more important in particular for Turkey. The first article of the Lebanese Citizenship Law theoretically commits to receiving citizenship in this way; Lebanese: (a) Every person born of a Lebanese father (b) Every person born in the Greater Lebanon territory and did not acquire foreign nationality, upon birth, by affiliation. (c) Every person born in the Greater Lebanon territory of unknown parents or parents of unknown nationality7. According to this article, every child, born within the territory of Lebanon, or in cases where his or her parents’ national belonging is questioned and not known, receives Lebanese citizenship. This situation theoretically provides a solution to the problem of statelessness in Lebanon, but if it is not implemented (ISI, 2016), it allows both a humanitarian crisis and a debate on law enforcement. In general, however, this article of the Lebanese citizenship law draws a similar framework with article 8 of the Turkish citizenship law. In other words, while being born within the borders of Lebanon and Turkey is open to the interpretation of the right of citizenship according to these articles, Muammer Güler, the interior minister of the period, said that these immigrants would not be able to get citizenship because their citizenship is known, bringing Turkey closer to Lebanon in terms of approaching the citizenship issue of Syrians. The Syrians continue to live in Lebanon without legal rights, causing that they mostly settle in the Beqaa Valley, North and South Lebanon informally, while the lack of working rights exposes them to the exploitation of their labor and gendered attacks. The gap caused by the lack of legal basis also opposes the search for rights of the “de facto Syria citizens” in this direction (Geha, 2018, p. 2). Northern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley are at the forefront compared to the other regions in terms of child registration rates (UNHCR, 2013, p. 55). The main reason for this is that migrants who immigrate there are both deprived of basic rights and economically disadvantaged. However, as discussed above in the case of Turkey, not being a citizen and not being included in the 6 According to the 1932 population election results, Lebanese President must be Marunî Christian, Prime Minister must be Sunni Muslim, and Parliament speaker must be Shiite Muslim. 7 https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/44a24c6c4.pdf (Date of Access: 01.02.2019) Copyright @ 2020 BORDER CROSSING Transnational Press London