Turkey places conditions on Europe for migrant help

Turkey has surprised European Union leaders by hitting them with a new set of demands if it is to help stem the flow of refugees from Syria and Iraq and other migrants seeking to enter Europe.

At the start of an emergency summit meeting in Brussels on Monday, Turkey's prime minister asked for billions of euros in new assistance, easier access to visas for Turks to go to Europe and the dramatic acceleration of talks on Turkey's membership in the bloc, a discussion that has languished for years.

The toughening of the Turkish position underscored Ankara's apparent attempt to win more support from Europe if it is going to be expected to insulate the bloc from tens of thousands of new asylum seekers.

The Turkish demands laid bare the European Union's weakening position and signalled that the difficulties -- and costs -- of managing the crisis might only rise the longer it stumbled on.

Hoping to avoid a repeat of last year, when hundreds of thousands of refugees overwhelmed authorities from Greece to Germany and beyond, European leaders were weighing whether to declare "closed" the route migrants have taken through the Balkans to Western Europe.

But such a step threatens to bottle up migrants in Greece, and has sharply divided European leaders, with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany reluctant to burden Greece, which is trying to regain its economic footing after a crippling six-year debt crisis.

"You end up in situations like this when you have neglected to build the capacity to deal with the bigger issues of our time," said Fredrik Erixon, the director of the European Centre for International Political Economy, a research group in Brussels.

"Turkey now is going to raise the costs for Europe," he added, "and to such an extent that Europe may not be able to oppose Turkish goals in the region including how to deal with Syria and the Kurds." - Read More at the afr

Turkey places conditions on Europe for migrant help | afr.com