Erdogan slams EU for not keeping promises
Turkish president says EU has not provided promised financial aid for refugees
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the EU Tuesday for not keeping its promises on granting assistance for Syrian refugees as previously agreed upon with Ankara.
Speaking at an event organized by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, Erdogan said months had passed since Ankara and the EU had agreed on billions of euros in assistance for Syrian refugees in Turkey and nothing had yet come.
Erdogan said that Turkey has been looking after 3 million Syrian refugees and, up to now, had spent $10 billion, adding that with the amount spent by NGOs, the total had surpassed $20 billion.
“What did they say? ‘We are going to give you 3 billion euros annually.’ So, did they give any money so far? No!” Erdogan said.
He said EU leaders had come to Turkey and visited refugee camps, all the while asking for project details in exchange for financing.
“Are you kidding us, what kind of projects? At the moment, there are 25 camps. You see them. There is nothing like a project.”
“We have established container towns, we have set up tent cities; they are still telling us ‘send us projects, we will send you money’,” Erdogan said.
Under an EU-Turkey deal to ease the refugee crisis facing Europe, EU leaders agreed on a 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion) aid package to help Turkey care for millions of refugees hosted in the country.
EU leaders also agreed to cut visa requirements for Turkish citizens and accelerate Turkey's EU membership bid.
Regarding the European Commission proposing visa-free travel for Turks in the Schengen zone, Erdogan said that one of the five conditions imposed by the EU was a “catastrophe”.
The 28-nation bloc's executive body said Turkey had five remaining benchmarks, out of an initial 72, to fulfill in order for visa liberalization to happen.
The five remaining benchmarks touch on issues including: measures to prevent corruption, data protection in line with EU standards, cooperation with EU’s law enforcement agency Europol, judicial cooperation on criminal matters with all EU member states and – the most problematic according to Erdogan - "revising the legislation and practices on terrorism in line with European standards".
“They told us to change the anti-terror law,” Erdogan said, calling on EU to first answer why did it let a terror organization (referring to the PKK) set up tents in front of the European Parliament.
In March, a PKK tent was set up in front of the European Council building in Brussels just two days after a terrorist attack killed dozens of people in the Turkish capital Ankara.
PKK terrorist organization supporters had initially received permission from the Belgian government to set up the tent until the end of March.
Erdogan warned that, with or without vias liberalization, Turkey would take its own path.
“There is no need to make big deal of it,” Erdogan said, adding that what was important was to “stand upright” and not “lie down”.
