Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

Turkey will not fulfill its part of the refugee deal with the EU if the bloc does not lift its visa requirements for Turkish citizens by October, said Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s Foreign Minister.

Turkey’s fulfillment of its commitments under the refugee deal with the EU “depends on the lifting of visa requirements for our citizens that is also a subject of the agreement,” Cavusoglu said during an exclusive interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The minister also stressed that the Turkish government is waiting for a “specific deadline” to be set for the lifting of visa requirements. “It can be early or mid-October but we wait for an exact date,” he said.

The Heads of State and the EU Member States' governments agreed with Turkey upon a joint plan to combat the migration crisis in mid-March. The program is focusing on the return of illegal immigrants arriving from Greece to the territory of Turkey and accepting legal Syrian refugees in Turkey by the EU based principle of "one for one".

The European Commission has proposed in May that the European Parliament and EU Council will lift visa restrictions for citizens of Turkey, if Ankara will fulfill the remaining conditions for the abolition of visas until the end of June.

Cavusoglu stressed that Turkey will not be able to stop the flow of refugees to Europe alone, if the EU fails to fulfill its obligations.

Previously, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that if the EU doesn’t cancel visa regime with Turkey in mid-October, Ankara won’t be able to receive illegal migrants from the EU, adding that the EU still has not paid $3 billion allocated for maintenance of refugees.

Earlier Ankara abolished visas for citizens of all 28 EU countries. However, visa-free regime will come into force only after the EU abolishes visa regime for Turkish citizens.

In accordance with the agreement reached between Turkey and the EU, the citizens of Cyprus will also be able to take advantage of visa-free regime with Turkey.

Turkey has along waited for its EU membership, while each application to accede to the European Union was frustrating for the government. Turkey, holding a status of an associate member at the Economic Community -- the predecessor of the EU since 1963 -- made an official application for entry on April 14, 1987.

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