Merkel, accompanied by EU Council President Donald Tusk, EU Deputy Commissioner Frans Timmermans and Davutoglu, on Saturday visited the Nizip 1 camp, that hosts almost 10,000 Syrian refugees, saying that Ankara had made the “greatest contribution” by taking in almost 3 million migrants.
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Merkel, for her part, said she is pushing for the establishment of special security zones in Syria, near its border with Turkey, where refugees can find shelter. Merkel hopes for Turkey’s support to bring the numbers down.
Merkel said she discussed press freedom in Turkey with Davutoglu.
“Not a single Syrian refugee has been returned from Turkey unless it is of their free will”, the Turkish prime minister said.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has also put Merkel in a hard position by demanding that Germany press charges against a comedian who recited a sexually crude satirical poem about him on a German public broadcaster last month.
Amid a ramped up security presence, Merkel, EU Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans visited a local refugee camp.
There are a whopping 2.7million refugees in Turkey who have escaped violence in Syria between the government and the evil Islamic State.
Criticism of Turkey in Europe poses an obstacle to the deal struck by European Union leaders with Ankara last month because approval of the EU’s side of the bargain, notably waiving visas for Turkish travelers by June, requires support in the European Parliament.
Tusk on Saturday also praised Turkey as the “best example” on how refugees should be treated. I am proud that we are partners.
Serkan Demirtas, an Ankara-based expert on EU-Turkey relations, said there are huge discrepancies between Ankara and Brussels on the number of benchmarks Turkey have so far satisfied.
“No one has a right to lecture Turkey on what it should be doing”, he said.
Prior to its enforcement nearly three weeks ago, Merkel lobbied European leaders to back the deal to return thousands of migrants from the Greek islands to Turkey. In return, the bloc can deport migrants who don’t qualify for asylum in Greece back to Turkey.
“The way I see It, Turkey has made good progress ahead of decisions to be taken this summer, provided that Turkey meets all the agreed benchmarks”, Tusk said.
Sunderland says “that should make them rethink the flawed EU-Turkey deal”. However the United Nations has been wary of such a move unless there was a way to guarantee the refugees’ safety in the war-torn country.
The EU will also provide up to €6 billion to help Syrian refugees in Turkey.
On Saturday Davutoglu said there would be no more readmissions if visa liberalisation was not enacted, but that he believed the European Union would take the necessary steps.
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“The trip comes at a critical juncture in the implementation of the deal”, Sinan Ulgen, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe said, pointing out the European Union has not secured the backing of all member states, while Turkey has yet to meet all the criteria.
