“What the Europeans are asking of Turkey is unrealistic and unrealisable”, said Cengiz Aktar, a political scientist from Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University.
Advertisement
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said “Turkish membership will be an asset” and added that “no disagreements emerged” during the meeting.
“Migration and the refugee crisis is one but also others, including the revitalisation of the accession talks… this comes together with new investments from the Turkish side in basic fundamentals like human rights, media freedom and, I would like to stress it in particular, the need to restart the peace process with the Kurdish”.
The refugee crisis has reminded European leaders just how much Turkey – whether a bloc member or not – is a pivotal partner for the EU and a buffer state from the bedlam rocking much of the Middle East in recent years.
A key element of the plan is a 3-billion-euro ($3.2-billion) aid package over two years for Turkey to raise the living standards of the more than two million Syrian refugees now living in the country.
An unprecedented full European Union summit with Turkey agreed a fragile pact aimed at stemming the flow of migrants to Europe via Turkey.
Reuters reports that the talks could see the opening of the “next chapter” of negotiations with Turkey in its accession talks to the EU.
Leaving the summit Sunday, French President François Hollande said the funds would be released progressively, with Turkey’s progress monitored “step by step”.
European and Turkish leaders have been meeting in Brussels, the EU hoping that cash and closer ties will entice Turkey to help stem the flow of migrants into Europe.
In return for Turkey bolstering its border controls, Europe is dangling rewards that could bring the nation closer to the European Union than it has been for nearly a decade. The EU said this would “explore the vast potential of Turkey-EU relations, which has not been realised fully yet”.
Turkey can not guarantee that the refugee influx will abate, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
“But let me stress that we are not rewriting our enlargement policy”.
He was referring to the 26-country free-travel zone in Europe, which is also in danger of unravelling under the strains of the migratory pressures and jihadist terrorism.
“Our main goal is to stem the flow of migrants to Europe”, The New York Times quoted Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, as saying.
The EU also agreed to speed up work on Ankara’s membership bid to the 28-nation bloc and Turkish visa-free access to the EU. The European Union is attempting to prevent them from reaching the bloc by supporting Turkey financially so that it can provide decent living conditions for the refugees. Davutoglu is standing in for Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the Brussels meeting.
Advertisement
A refugee couple from Syria pose with their twin babies on Eftalou Beach, west of the port of Mytilene, on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey on September 21, 2015.
