Turkish Foreign Min. threatens to scrap EU-Turkey deal on refugee crisis
Apr, 18 2016
Author: newsroom He accused the EU of failing to keep its part of the bargain
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu threatened to
annul the agreement between Turkey and the EU on the refugee crisis, if
the latter did not uphold its part of the deal. Speaking before the
country’s national assembly, Cavusoglu said the EU was slow in
fulfilling its obligations emanating from the deal, despite the fact
that refuge flows to the EU had dwindled. Turkey has undertaken the
commitment to control the refugee numbers leaving its shores and to
readmit any refugees ineligible to stay in the EU. On its part, the EU
has promised to accept an equal amount of refugees as Turkey does and
release funds to the country to aid it in dealing with the hundreds of
thousands of refugees staying in Turkey.
Turkey has also managed to
ensure a speeding up of talks for admission into the EU. Cavusoglu did
not mince words and threatened to scrap the agreement, expecting an
immediate implementation of the agreed commitments on the part of the
EU. His speech came on the heels of a fiery address by Turkish President
Tayyip Erdogan a few days ago, who accused the Europeans of
incompetence in collaborating among themselves to combat terrorism.