EU-Turkey summit. Bowing down to increasing tyranny because of the refugee crisis?

Turkey has faced criticism from EU officials and politicians over the seizure of the Zaman media group at a Brussels summit as part of efforts to implement a joint action plan on illegal migrants, while critics accuse the EU of turning a blind eye to Turkey’s worsening press record to procure its support in curbing the flow of migrants
Turkey’s EU Minister Volkan Bozkır has suggested that the European Parliament’s Rapporteur for Turkey Kati Piri lost her “neutrality” about Turkey’s issues
The press in Turkey is under attack from a government that can’t cope with criticismTurkey is a country at the mercy of one man’s bad temper. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s response to any challenge or criticism has long been combative, but it is becoming ever more excessive and vindictive. The latest victim of his anger is the country’s biggest-selling newspaper, Zaman, which wastaken over by the authorities last week virtually at gunpoint.

EU-Turkey summit to focus on stemming flow of migrants to Europe

European leaders expected to try to speed up work on joint action plan aimed at getting to grips with crisis

EU and Turkish leaders are meeting in Brussels in a decisive moment for Europe’s efforts to get to grips with its migration crisis, which is on the brink of turning into a humanitarian catastrophe.

 

EU migration summit stalls as Turkey ups demands – live

EU leaders are set to call on Turkey to do more to stop migrants and refugees from making the dangerous journey across the Aegean Sea to Greece

Summit preview: leaders try to stem flow of people

UK to join Nato refugee patrols in Aegean

Erdoğan, the enemy of press freedom, will humiliate the EU again

Turkey’s president will get away with his media clampdown because the European Union needs his help over the refugee crisis

For several years I have been posting blog items on the fraught relationship between Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the country’s journalists.

EU leaders held a summit with Turkey’s PM on March 7 in order to back closing the Balkans migrant route and urge Ankara to accept deportations of large numbers of economic migrants from overstretched Greece
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has held a six-hour meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU term president Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Brussels, ahead of a March 7 summit to implement a joint action plan on illegal migrants
Erdoğan is a problematic partner but EU needs Turkey’s help

Takeover of opposition newspaper was Erdoğan giving Brussels the finger on eve of summit, and other issues have gone largely unchallenged too

Europe’s Faustian pact with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to curtail migration into the EU may carry a devilishly high price tag. Turkey’s authoritarian president has proved an unreliable and problematic partner since the Syrian crisis erupted five years ago. But the EU’s urgent need for his help currently outweighs its deep misgivings. As Faust discovered, the reckoning comes later.

France’s foreign minister said on March 7 that the decision by Turkish authorities to seize control of the country’s largest newspaper was “unacceptable” and went against European values
Donald Tusk’s migration magic trick undermined by flawed logic

Turkey’s compliance is not a foregone conclusion, and it is unlikely that the Balkans can be sealed off from Greece

“With that,” said Donald Tusk, president of the European council, with all the confidence of a magician at a circus, “we will close the western Balkans route.” It is a hubristic claim – but one that nevertheless reflects the new hardline agenda that much of Europe’s top brass hopes to push through during the migration summit between European and Turkish leaders.

Turkey, refugee crisis and women’s issues among EP plenary agenda in Strasbourg
Famagusta Gazette
EU-Turkey Summit, European agenda on migration and refugees, as well as issues relating to women and the protection of refugee women, on the occasion of International Women`s Day, will be among the isues discussed during the spring session of the …

A half-day summit between the EU and Turkey was extended on March 7 after Turkish PM Davutoğlu offered “new ideas” going beyond Ankara’s commitments so far to curb a flood of migrants to Europe
Refugees rescued off Greece and Turkey – video

Aerial footage from Turkey’s coastguard shows people being rescued from the water near the Turkish resort of Didim on Sunday as a boat lies below the water. At least 15 were plucked to safety but 25 people died on Sunday, including three children. In a separate incident, Greek coastguards are seen rescuing hundreds of people in waters around the island of Lesbos

Merkel calls Turkey ‘right’ in wanting to share refugee task with Europe

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Turkey “rightfully” wanted to share the burden of more than 2.5 million migrants with the European Union

Refugee crisis: joint action with Turkey the priority, says Merkel, as summit called

Meeting likely to happen in early March as Donald Tusk and German chancellor say cooperation with Turkey is the focus

 

Turkey needs to stem migrant flow by June 1 deadline, says EU envoy

Turkey needs to stop or significantly reduce the number of illegal migrants crossing into Europe by June 1, when a readmission agreement between Ankara and Brussels goes into full effect, an EU envoy said on March 4
Europe needs Turkey to stem the flow of refugees and migrants now – everything else can wait.

Turkey agrees to take back people who don’t qualify for EU asylum

Diplomats claim breakthrough after Turkish PM pledges to readmit those not permitted to enter EU as asylum applicants hit record numbers

European diplomats are claiming a breakthrough in the continent’s migration crisis after reporting that Turkey has agreed to take back people not qualifying for asylum in the EU.

An emerging deal would resettle many Syrian refugees living in Turkey if the country reduces the number of people who leave, giving some officials hope of progress.

WikiLeaks publishes EU’s secret report on migrants
New Europe
They are the western Mediterranean route, which reaches Spain from North West Africa; the central Mediterranean route from North Africa to Italy and Malta and the eastern Mediterranean route from Turkey to Greece. According to data provided by FRONTEX, …
This Is Why the European Union Wants a Friendly Government in LibyateleSUR English

Turkey became the European Union’s fifth largest trade partner in 2015, according to data released by Eurostat

European states deeply divided on refugee crisis before key summit

Germany’s Angela Merkel is trying to salvage her open-door policy as a growing number of countries move to seal borders

Europe’s deep divide over immigration is to be laid bare at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, with German chancellor Angela Merkel struggling to salvage her open-door policy while a growing number of countries move to seal borders to newcomers along the Balkan routes.

Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Turkey accuses of being an offshoot of the outlawed PKK, embraces the ideas of the PKK’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan, PYD head Salih Muslim has said
Syria, migration, terrorism: the EU’s leaders seem helpless in the face of these interrelated crises. Yet there is a political solution – and it begins with Turkey

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