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Turkey has fulfilled all commitments in EU-Turkey deal: PM

Xinhua, April 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Turkish Prime Ahmet Davutoglu defended here on Tuesday, in front of 47 member state representatives of the Council of Europe (CoE), the work undertaken by Ankara to implement the agreement reached between his country and the European Union (EU), letting it be understood European countries had not taken responsibility for their part of the support for Syrian refugees.

"Turkey has fulfilled all of it commitments," affirmed Davutoglu during a long address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), specifying the number of migrant passages from Turkey toward Greece had fallen to "60 individuals or even none per day."

"All the measures have been put in place," added the head of the Turkish government. "There is no problem," he asserted, while specifying: "Turkey could speak of difficulties because the 3 billion euros (3.41 billion U.S. dollars) set aside for the Syrian refugees arriving in Turkey are still not in our hands."

As part of the compromise reached on March 18 between Ankara and the EU, Brussels promised 3 billion euros in aid to assist in the handling of refugees, on top of the 3 billion euros already pledged.

The agreement provides for the return to Turkey of irregular migrants arriving illegally to the Greek islands, including asylum seekers. In return, for every Syrian returned to Turkey, the EU must "resettle" another one within its borders.

The March 18 agreement also provides for the acceleration of negotiations for Turkish accession to the EU, which were opened in 2005. It is "the motor of our relationship," the prime minister said.

Concerning the liberalization of visas for Turkish citizens who want to travel to the EU -- another clause of the agreement which has caused controversy among Europeans -- Ahmet Davutoglu made no comment.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned on Monday that Turkey would annul its commitments in the handling of the refugee crisis if the compensations in the agreement weren't respected.

Tuesday morning, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker assured the PACE assembly Brussels would only liberalize visas for Turkish citizens if Ankara respected the criteria for all third countries. Endit