Brussels, 19/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 19 October, the day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Ankara, Turkey's Islamic-Conservative prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said that Turkey “is not a concentration camp and refuses to host migrants permanently on its soil that the European Union does not want” - as reported by French news agency AFP.
“We cannot accept an agreement on the following basis: 'give us money and they will stay in Turkey'”, Davutoglu said in an interview with Turkish television channel A Haber. “I said this to Ms Merkel. No one must expect Turkey to be transformed into a concentration camp where all the refugees will stay”, he stressed.
On Thursday 15 October, the European Commission gave details of the action plan with Turkey for the country to regulate the arrival of migrants to the EU and allow refugees, especially Syrians, to live in better conditions in Turkey so that they are not tempted to head for the EU (see EUROPE 11410).
In return, Ankara would benefit from a boost to negotiations for a visa liberalisation regime for Turkish nationals in July 2016, Ankara hopes, as well as a boost to negotiations for EU accession (see other article). Turkey has not, however, at this stage said that it accepts the conditions of this agreement, and its leaders are increasingly critical in public.
On Sunday, Merkel believed she had made progress on this collaboration with Turkey for relaunching the accession process. She wants to see the economic and monetary chapter opened, paving the way for visa facilitation, and has said that Turkey's application to join the EU will experience fresh “dynamism”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)