Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu recently announced there are problems with the disbursement of the 3 billion euro promised by the EU as part of the refugee migration agreement. On March 18, EU leaders and Turkey’s Prime Minister Davutoglu reached an agreement on returning all illegal migrants arriving into Greece through Turkey in exchange for:
- visa-free travel for Turkish citizens.
- additional 3 billion euro.
- EU accepting Syrian refugees from Turkey.
Many European experts and politicians were outraged by this agreement. It meant that the EU agreed to pay tribute to Turkey and open its borders to everyone with a Turkish passport, in exchange for Turkey establishing de facto concentration camps for refugees on its territory. EU political leadership in turn is not in any hurry to implement the controversial agreement which is causing Erdogan regime’s displeasure. Particularly when it comes to the unsupervised disbursement of money.
“There are problems with the EU disbursing the three billion to Turkey in order to adopt the refugees. If the funds are disbursed for specific projects, what will happen with these refugees in the next two years? The EU ought to be more pragmatic. There are complications in this aspect of the agreement, unlike other parts,” Cavusoglu said during an Ankara press conference.
In other words, Turkey’s Foreign Minister demands immediate and unconditional transfer of the three billion. Few believe that much of this money would be spent on refugees. Ankara desperately needs money to continue their punitive actions against the Kurds in eastern Turkey. There are no reasons for optimism. Turkish budget revenues from tourism declined sharply this year, likewise agricultural exports and construction business are under threat. Only two branches of the economy are continuing to bring Erdogan’s regime high revenues: oil smuggling and refugee trade.
