It has been while that the relationship between Turkey and EU has frozen due to many disagreements and conflicts. Just couple of weeks ago EU Commission published its annual report on progress of Turkey which was postponed after the November 1st general elections of Turkey. According to the latest report of EU, Turkey has not improved in terms of human rights, freedom of press and speech, instead situation is getting worse. However, the growing numbers of refugees in the territory of EU, made Brussels to knock doors of Turkey and organized a summit of EU-Turkey on the particular issue of refugees only after the Paris attack.
The Paris attack was not only a milestone for EU but also for Turkey too. Regarding that terrorists have some European passports and were refugees, Paris attack displayed that the refugee crisis will be a trigger for other tremendous problems in EU in the near future. On the other hand, the main Western media channels kicked off mentioning about organic connection between Turkey and ISIS, particularly Erdogan and his family business in oil transporting. Hence, the media that belong to long-term allies of Turkey in NATO openly commenced to wrote about the allegations of corruption and support of ISIS. Yet, Financial Times has published special report of how 1 barrel of ISIS oil transport to markets, by showing maps that includes routes to Turkish borders. Subsequently, Turkey downed a Russian war plane and appointed BeratAlbayrak as the Turkey’s new Ministry of Energy, known as son-in-law of President Erdogan and long-term CEO of an energy company in Turkey. The new situation led Russian leader Vladimir Putin to act aggressively against Turkey mainly in terms of economic sanctions and suspending visa-free regime between Ankara and Moscow.
EU-Turkey summit on refugee problem was occurred in light of these developments that Turkey was represented by the Prime Minister Davutoglu who is known as the main designer of the Turkish foreign policy towards Syria. As a result of the summit, Turkey accepted to receive refugees in Europe in exchange of 3 billion Euros and a “hope” for visa-free regime for Turkish citizens starting from 2016. Thus, Turkey and EU endorsed the worst agreement ever in terms of human rights and social politics. Firstly, the agreementconveyed significant interrogations and details that both sides did not bother to discuss with. Turkey agreed on accepting those refuges but did Davutoglu ask how they will be send to Turkey, by trains, buses, planes or on foot? Just imagine that that those refugees have managed to survive after days of dangerous travel to Europe feel when European countries will get rid of them by paying only 3 billion Euros. These refugees who mostly run from Turkey due to severe conditions in Turkey will see Turkey as hell. Consequently, Turkey will accept people who believe that Turkey is a country that should be run off after Syria. These people took risks to escape from Turkey by taking little boats or walking days and nights with their kids and European politicians decided to send them back to Turkey. If refugees think that Turkey is a great country, why would have they tried to escape from Turkey? Another question is how long Turkey will host these refuges? Nobody knows because there is no such a plan to send all these people to their home country after maintaining a peaceful and safe zones for them.
Turkey is not a rich country and not have capacity to control and register all these refugees as occurred in most EU countries whereat refugees will be volunteer for the lowest-income works in Turkish society which is mostly dominated by Kurdish community and Erdogan supporters. Besides there is an ongoing political and social problems between Turks and Kurds as well as growing gap between the wealth level between the rich and poor in Turkey, there is a great possibility for growing tension between Syrian refugees and Kurds.
Secondly, did Turkey and EU discuss the status of refugees? Who are these refugees? Do European countries will send suspicious terrorists who already have EU passport or recently received? By agreeing on acceptance of refugees, Turkey also takes the risk of becoming a central country for the extremist terrorists. As long as Turkey does not initiate a plan for return of Syrian refugees to their own country safely, the sociological results will be horrible not only for Turkey but also for refugees too. Syrian refugees deserve better than cheap bargaining for the future of their kids.
Finally, as a result of this EU-Turkey bargaining over refugees, Turkey will become new Jordan. Jordan received millions of Palestinian refugees and could not manage to adopt them to their society although Jordanians and Palestinians ethnically Arab. The generations grew in Jordan and the hostility gap grew between Jordanians and Palestinians whom were only allowed to live in contained settlements. Therefore, Turkey and EU countries signed the worst agreement ever and initiated a problem that will grow for decades due to lack of thinking future of Syrian refugees but just saving the day for Europeans. Meanwhile, Turkish pro-Erdogan media keeps on polishing that Turkey received visa-free right from EU which is not true. Just a hope.
