{"id":70539,"date":"2016-03-18T10:33:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T14:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/?p=70539"},"modified":"2016-03-18T10:33:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T14:33:00","slug":"europe-offers-deal-to-turkey-to-take-back-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/europe-offers-deal-to-turkey-to-take-back-migrants\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe Offers Deal To Turkey To Take Back Migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"
BERLIN – European Union leaders were Friday locked in crunch-time talks with Turkey, offering a detailed package of cash and incentives in a bid to end the continent’s historic migrant crisis.<\/p>\n
After hours of wrangling in Brussels, EU leaders reached a common stance overnight on a package of concessions. Under the deal, virtually all migrants – including Syrians fleeing the country’s five-year-old civil war – attempting to cross the Aegean Sea by raft or boat would be sent back to Turkey, which would, in effect, become the region’s migrant holding center. The Europeans pledged to accept a relatively small number of Syrians – but no other nationalities – after legal processing in Turkey.<\/p>\n
Early Friday, the Europeans were pitching the offer as the only way to end “the human suffering” of migrants being exploited by smugglers. But human rights groups have cried foul, arguing the plan instead is likely to dramatically boost the suffering of migrants who could now be stranded in Turkey, a country descending into instability and violence and with a dismal track record on human rights.<\/p>\n
To reach agreement with the Turks, several sticking points remained. The Turks, for instance, are demanding at least 6 billion euros ($.3.3 billion), but a draft of the European offer simply repeats an early pledge to give half that amount. Visa-free travel for Turkish citizens – a key demand by Ankara – would be granted by the end of June, but only if the Turks meet a series of 72 arduous conditions.<\/p>\n
The “negotiations won’t be very easy,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who earlier had hashed out the framework of a deal with the Turks, told reporters in Brussels early Friday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n “The EU and Turkey have the same goal, the same objective, to help Syrian refugees especially, and to have a new future in our continent in a bright manner,” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday morning before meetings began. “I hope we will achieve our goal to help the refugees and also to deepen EU-Turkey relations.”<\/p>\n As per Turkish demands, the Europeans were dangling out the prospect of broadening talks with Ankara on its bid to become a member of the EU. But Cyprus – the former target of a Turkish invasion, and already an EU member – remained reluctant and was threatening to block a deal if it did not contain concessions on Turkey’s long-contentious attempts to isolate the island nation.<\/p>\n “Turkey has to open its harbors and airports [to Cypriot boats and planes] and normalize its relations with Cyprus,” Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades told Euronews.<\/p>\n Other European leaders also voiced concerns that Turkey was seeking to leverage the continent’s desperation to put an end to the irregular flows of humanity that saw more than a million migrants arrive from the war-torn Middle East and beyond over the course of the last year.<\/p>\n “An agreement with Turkey cannot be a blank check,” Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel warned, echoing many colleagues who face complaints that Europe is selling out to anti-immigrant nationalists at home by outsourcing its problems to the Turks.<\/p>\n Donald Tusk, the EU President, was set to open talks in Brussels with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu Friday morning Brussels time. The talks were set to accelerate later in the day, with a working lunch including all 28 EU leaders.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n