230 Stateless Syrians in Turkey and Lebanon occurring at the global level. with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), this situation has been come forefront and described in the later period. In this context, Item-15 is as follows: 1“Everyone has the right to a nationality. 2-No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality, nor denied die right to change his nationality”. However, this item is insufficient to solve the problems that arise in practice. Considering the subsequent studies within the UN, it is understood that previous agreements were inadequate in the process (Altuğ, 1963, p. 202). Considering the precautions taken at this point, International organisations signed agreements aimed at eliminating the phenomenon of statelessness until 2030 with the UN Conventions on Statelessness, 1961 the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (OCHA, 2017, p. 4). As can be understood from the names of the contracts, while the convention in 1954 focuses on the status of stateless persons (Hadimoglu and Teksoy, 2013, p. 223), the 1961 convention refers to pursue a working policy aiming at the elimination of this phenomenon. Further backward, the 1954 agreement is a continuation of the refugee agreement signed in 1951 and focuses on defining and improving the conditions of this phenomenon, rather than solving the phenomenon of statelessness. This agreement, which is also an attempt to identify the phenomenon of de jure statelessness, does not include the definition of de facto statelessness, which is more dynamic and has a wider production mechanism. The de facto statelessness, which points to a process in which the citizenship relations with the State is neutralised, was also deprived of a legal base, except for the definition of statelessness in the 1954 convention (Malischewski, 2018). The 1961 agreement, even if, shows the attempt to resolve the statelessness occurring from birth based on the law, it could not bring an adequate solution to the existing statelessness, or no sanctions were imposed for arbitrary deprivation of citizenship (Blitz, 2009, p. 6). The Convention to Reduce the Number of Cases of Statelessness2, signed in Bern in 1973, is also an example of an attempt to consider the problem of statelessness as a global issue and to reduce potential victimisation. The Phenomenon of Statelessness and Syrian Citizenship in International Treaties Citizenship refers to the starting point of the rights and responsibilities of individuals when expressing their belonging to certain land and State. Individuals/groups on the World cannot sometimes obtain this right by birth for different reasons. As discussed above, this case, which is available for discussion in different categories, prepares the ground for the experiencing of important social and political problems. Individuals, who are born on other countries but who do not take citizenship, in the same way, who cannot establish the nationality bond with their own country, or who cannot document this situation, have constant rights with international law, but they can face the problem of statelessness. The absence of a State that individuals can feel a sense of responsibility to, the deprivation of the State which can be benefited from its sheltered structure, pushes the individuals to an ‘unowned’ position in the international arena and makes them vulnerable compared to the people with citizenship. This is why the Council of Europe and the UN are trying to minimise the phenomenon of statelessness as it prevents the use of fundamental human rights (Batchelor, 1998, p. 157; Hadimoğlu and Teksoy, 2013, p. 224). Moreover, in the first and fourth articles3 of the report prepared by the United Nations International Law Commission, the ways in which individuals acquire citizenship are enlarged and necessary efforts are made to ensure 2 https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/KANUNLAR_KARARLAR/kanuntbmmc058/kanuntbmmc058/kanunt bmmc05801883.pdf 3 For detailed information of the Commission's articles; General Assembly (30 January 2001) https://www.unhcr.org/42bc068d2.pdf BORDER CROSSING