(TRUNEWS) Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu has told the EU that the March deal to take back the migrant population will be null and void unless Brussels gives Turkey visa-free travel by the end of June.
“Turkey has fulfilled all its commitments under the deal,” Davutoglu told the Council of Europe Monday. This was followed Wednesday with a threat from a senior Turkish official, who said “If we have hiccups and politically motivated obstacles then we will terminate the agreement.”
Under the original terns agreed upon in March, the EU offered $7.2 million in aid to Turkey as well as visa-free travel to all Turkish citizens in exchange for Turkey reabsorbing millions of migrants which have illegally resettled in Europe. Brussels also sweetened the deal with the hint of a fast track to EU membership.
Critics of the deal, and the blackmailing stance Turkey has taken, believe Istanbul’s culture and laws are incompatible with Western Europe.
“The EU wants to give visa-free travel to all Turkish citizens by June, and eventually full Turkish accession. British people are appalled that the EU is giving into blackmail and allowing visa-free travel,” James Carver, a UKIP member of the European Parliament and sitting official on the foreign affairs committee said.
“This shows that the Brexit debate is not really about where the EU is now but the direction and destiny it is travelling to in the future. Turkey is too big, too poor and too different from us,” Carver added, ending, “I certainly don’t wish to be in a political union with a country with such a despicable human rights record, which massacres the Kurds and helps out Islamic State in an underhand way too.”
Aside from Turkey’s horrendous treatment of residents, Ankara has recently made major steps toward dismantling its free press. On Wednesday Turkey denied Sputnik’s bureau chief Tural Kerimov entry to the country, and in March government officials raided and seized control of the nation’s largest independent daily newspaper Zaman.
(L-R) Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel attend an EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, as the bloc is looking to Ankara to help it curb the influx of refugees and migrants flowing into Europe, March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Virginia Mayo/Pool
The post Turkish PM hardballs EU: Visa-free travel or migrant deal void appeared first on TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles.
from TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles http://ift.tt/1WHBdyO
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment