“We abide by the agreement with the European Union and we expect Europe to do the same. If not, we will suspend our agreement with the EU on this issue,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
The Turkish foreign minister gave an interview to Neue Zuricher Zeitung (NZZ) that was published on Thursday. He spoke about the EU-Turkey agreement signed on March 20, in an effort to curb the migrant and refugee flow from Turkey to Greece.
The deal says that Turkey will take back migrants who leave its shores illegally in exchange for Syrian refugees currently on Turkish soil who will be moved to Europe. What Ankara asks for in exchange is visa-free travel of Turkish citizens to Europe.
However, the EU has not granted the Turkish request yet. “I will not wait until the end of the year. We had originally said in late October. Our patience is running out. We expect an answer (from the EU) these days. If we don’t get one, we will terminate the agreement,” Cavusoglu said.
Regarding the prerequisites for Turkey’s accession to the EU and its relations to Europe, the Turkish foreign minister rejected a possible compromise on the issue of migrants. He said he believes that his country has already made compromises on several issues, but stressed that it will not make any compromises in fighting terrorism. He said that Europe has implemented stricter anti-terrorism laws and asks for Turkey to weaken its own.
Cavusoglu said characteristically that European countries have not gone through a coup attempt, neither do they fight against terrorist organizations, such as the Islamic State, PKK, and its network of Fethullah Gülen.
Instead of lecturing Turkey, Europe should take action against racist movements, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, he said.
The cancellation of the EU-Turkey deal will cause major problems to Greece as the migrant influx experienced until the agreement was very difficult to handle. Greek authorities expect that the inflow will be much worse if the deal is cancelled now.
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