The European Commission expects progress in cooperation with Turkey in the field of migration. This statement was made by Maya Kosyanchich, the official representative of the head of European diplomacy Federica Mogherini. "We are cooperating with the Turkish authorities on this important issue and we have significantly stepped up our efforts in recent weeks. We believe this should continue. We are looking forward to working with the new Turkish government on this issue,’’ she said, adding that the discussion of the action plan is being continued now.
"We hope that progress is to be reached during the next weeks," Kosyanchich said.
Deputy spokeswoman of the European Commission Mina Andreeva said that "the work will be continued by those people who were involved in this issue before the elections." She also stressed that the head of the EC, Jean-Claude Juncker, will pay a visit to Turkey to attend the G20 summit, which is to give an opportunity to hold talks, including with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "Juncker's visit will be an opportunity to continue discussions on how to make progress more quickly,’’ RIA Novosti cites her.
In an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, Associate Professor, School of International Relations at the University of Economics and Technology TOBB (Ankara), political scientist Togrul Ismail said that first of all the talk is not about migrants, but those refugees who have used the current situation to move to Europe . "This is a very serious matter. There are a lot of migrants in Turkey. That is why the country offered the EU countries to establish a safe zone in Syria,’’ he underlined.
The expert noted that there are more refugees in Istanbul now than among all the EU countries. "In recent years, Ankara has spent about $8 billion on accommodating migrants. I think that the recent visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Istanbul will prepare the ground for reaching an agreement. It's more than likely that Turkey and the European Union will find a common approach to the problems of migrants. But refugees will continue to migrate to Europe until the Syrian conflict is resolved," the analyst said.
The Turkish political analyst Talat Cetin expressed the opinion that the proposal shows how Europe is selfish. "It turns out that the European countries receive only the richest people, and the poor have to live in other countries. It is an insult to Turkey. I think they won’t sign any agreement. Europe won’t be able to solve the migrant issue without the help of Turkey. So I do not expect any result, even at the G20 summit,’ the expert said.
According to him, Turkey will barely manage to get anything from Europe during these negotiations. "The EU always promises something and it does it more often when occasions offer. The Turks must realize that the EU will never let them join their club," Talat Cetin underlined.
