Turkey may refuse to accept illegal migrants from EU
By Gunay Hasanova
If the European Union (EU) doesn’t cancel visa regime with Turkey in mid-October, Ankara won’t be able to receive illegal migrants from the EU, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on August 8.
Erdogan said that the EU should keep its promise given to Ankara, TRT Haber news reported.
"Europe has never kept its promise. They still have not paid $3 billion allocated for maintenance of refugees. They cannot demand anything without fulfilling their promises," said Erdogan.
Speaking about the attempted military coup in Turkey, Erdogan noted that Ankara didn’t receive the expected and necessary support from the West after the military coup attempt.
Turkish president added that the EU left Turkey alone with its problems.
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"
Currently, there are more than two million Syrian refugees in the territory of Turkey. Approximately 300,000 of them live in the camps and the rest are scattered over the Turkish provinces. Only Istanbul is host to 40,000 refugees from Syria.
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.
On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them.
However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.
Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20.
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