EU ‘stringing it along’ over migrants: Turkey

ANKARA: The European Union should stop “stringing Turkey along” over helping out with the millions of migrants on its territory, the country’s foreign minister has said.

The remarks came a day after the two sides agreed to review a four-year-old deal aimed at stemming refugee flows to Europe. Mevlut Cavusoglu said the EU has to take “sincere” steps to help Turkey manage the flow of migrants, including finding ways to ensure Syrian refugees can return home.

The minister spoke a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a meeting with top EU officials in Brussels during which the sides agreed to review their 2016 deal on migrants. The meeting was called after thousands of migrants massed on Turkey’s border with Greece, following the Turkish government’s decision to open its borders to migrants wanting to cross into Europe. Greece has deployed riot police and border guards to prevent the crossings, sparking clashes between migrants and Greek security forces.

Following the talks in Brussels late on Monday, European Council President Charles Michel said teams headed by Cavusoglu and EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borell, would work “in the next days to clarify the implementation of the deal between Turkey and the EU to be certain that we are on the same page”. “We are ready for a constructive study ... We expect sincerity from the EU. The era of stringing Turkey along is over,” Cavusoglu told state-run Anadolu Agency. Cavusoglu said the sides would work toward “updating” the Turkey-EU deal in line with recent developments, including the situation in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, where a Syrian government offensive has driven thousands of Syrians toward the border with Turkey.