Turkey warns it may stop implementing refugee deal

Turkey has warned that it would stop implementing a historic deal with the European Union on curbing the flow of refugees to Europe if the EU fails to fulfill its promises.

“There are precise conditions. If the European Union does not take the necessary steps, then Turkey will not implement the agreement,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech on Thursday.

He added that everything that has been promised in the March 18 deal between Ankara and the EU must be put into action by the European side.

Under the agreement, Turkey has accepted a series of measures aimed at curbing the inflow of refugees from the country to Greece in return for some benefits, including billions of dollars in aid, visa-free travel for Turks to Europe and, more significant than all, acceleration in the EU’s processing of Turkey’s long-awaited bid for membership in the continental body.

Erdogan’s warning may indicate that Ankara would not sit idle if EU fell short of its pledge to grant visa-free travel to Turkish citizens, which the deal promises “at the latest” by June 2016.

The Turkish president, however, elaborated on EU’s delay in fulfilling its pledges, saying Turkey continues to spend billions of dollars on accommodation of refugees escaping the war in Syria as the EU has provided no funds in this regard.

SS