Should Turkey be happy about the refugee deal made with EU?

In an analysis of the terrifying Syrian conflict still unsolved, it could be interesting to have the answer to the question “who is among big time losers when we look at the current picture”.

It goes without saying Syrian people are the major losers as they have lost their homes, money, country and worst of all their lives. The picture is so dreadful that the slaughter made by brutal terrorists in Syria mainly is no doubt among the most dreadful and horrifying examples of barbarity in history.

Second in the row many opinion leaders put Turkey as one of the major losers. Some might think “Would it be unfair to this country which seems to be spending so much effort to contribute to a solution in the area, lately in specific that is…?”

Well, when we go all the way back to several years ago in time we will be truly astonished with the picture we see; Turkish PM Erdoğan is in unbelievably good terms with the Syrian leader Assad and in fact to the extent that the Erdoğan and Assad family go on holidays together. The two countries have joint parliamentary sessions and all… To cut a long story short the two countries are sort of “buddies”..

Then all of a sudden one day the Turkish leader starts a campaign against his “buddy” (??) Assad saying “He is a dictator, torturing, bombing, killing his people and terminating democracy” and “he should be brought down, to bring democracy to this neighboring country and save its people” etc …

That was the time when Turkey (or rather Erdoğan, maybe) started using all its power and facility to see to it that this ex-buddy could be overthrown. We do not want to go into details how Turkey used all its resources and what methods it used to make it happen (with no success obviously) all this time.

In the end however, it is very disappointing – if not saddening – to see Turkey is now the country that has to pay the tremendous bill put on the table, by hosting an approximate number of 2,7 million fleeing refugees from Syria to start off with. If we take another look at the picture to see the hostility grown among terrorist groups in the Middle East and remember hundreds of lives lost in bombings by those groups, it will not be very difficult to spot the damage this country and its people have incurred.

Recently, a deal between Turkey and the EU has been on the agenda and the funny part is parties spend their best efforts to promote this deal as if it is to the benefit of both sides.

The deal says “for every Syrian migrant sent back to Turkey, one Syrian already in Turkey will be resettled in the EU. Under the deal, migrants arriving in Greece are now expected to be sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or their claim is rejected. All irregular migrants crossing from Turkey into Greece from 20 March are to be sent back. Each arrival is to be individually assessed by the Greek authorities. In return EU will support this whole project by sparing funds of several billion euros.”

Important note: Since January 2015, one million migrants and refugees have entered the EU by boat from Turkey to Greece. More than 143,000 have arrived this year alone, and about 460 have died, according to the International Organization for Migration (More details: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35854413 – EU-Turkey statement, 18 March 2016 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/03/18-eu-turkey-statement )

So when we come back to the question “Should Turkey be happy about the refugee deal made with EU?” the answer could hardly be “YES” for following major reasons;

• Turkey has already spent billions and billions of dollars to host and accommodate millions of refugees from Syria (mostly).
• During all this time many terrorists have leaked into Turkey causing the country to be exposed  to possible threats of terrorism in the future (with several already experienced unluckily).
• And to be even worse Turkey is very likely to experience further troubles among its citizens due to a very possible nesting of Islam fundamentalists in the country – hoping it would never be a cause to trigger a civil clash between its citizens.
• The promise made by EU that it would grant Turkish citizens visa free travelling rights in Europe is “quite” doubtful to come true – and even if EU sticks to its promise in regards, who knows how long the EU will be able to bear with it.

Thus to recap the whole story “Not everyone in Turkey is convinced or satisfied with the deal” in the light of above facts and even more so considering it has been over a month now since the migrant deal between the EU and Turkey was struck, but not much has been going smoothly. Although the number of migrants reaching Greece from Turkey has dropped by around 80%, few of staff promised by the EU to help enforce the deal have arrived, and many EU nations are dragging their feet to accept more migrants.

As mentioned above more will be on the table, like the promise of visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in Europe, which might turn out to be one of the most problematic issues

Editor, BTT