Merkel to back
UNDER FIRE
ISTANBUL/BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered Turkey financial aid and the prospect of faster progress on its bid to join the European Union on Sunday in return for badly-needed help in stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.
Speaking in Istanbul at a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Merkel said Germany could help accelerate the path to visa-free travel to the EU for Turks and push forward Ankara’s protracted EU membership talks.
In return, she expected Turkey to agree to take back migrants rejected by the EU, something Davutoglu has said he will only agree to if there is progress on the visa issue.
“I think we have used the crisis we are experiencing through a very disorderly and uncontrolled movement of refugees, to again achieve closer cooperation on many issues, both between the European Union and Turkey, and between Germany and Turkey,”Merkel said after meeting the Turkish premier.
Dubbed a “punch-bag” for her own party by some German media due to frustrations over the refugee crisis, Merkel wants to cement a European deal with Turkey on aid and closer ties in return for help in encouraging refugees there to stay put.
She has resisted pressure to tighten Germany’s border controls and turn away refugees arriving from Austria, even as Germany expects 800,000 to 1 million new arrivals this year. Both the Turkish and German leaders said they had agreed there could be no lasting solution to the migration crisis without resolving the conflict in Syria, from where more than 2 million refugees have now fled to Turkey. REUTERS