Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting Erdogan on Friday. Shortly before their visit, a "secret document" becomes public.
- Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting Turkey on Friday, January 24 .
- Shortly before their meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan , a serious allegation is made.
- On the morning of the meeting, a “government secret ” document will also be made public.
Update of February 27, 2020: The situation in the Syrian rebel stronghold Idlib has now escalated again. According to official information from a Turkish news agency, two Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike. In order to calm the situation in Idlib, another crisis summit is planned for early March.
Update at 9:37 p.m .: After meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan , Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany wants to help Turkey strengthen its coastguard . The Turkish coast guard plays an important role in trying to stop migrants on their way to Greece and thus to the EU.
Merkel had previously assured Erdogan of further help in overcoming the refugee crisis. Above all, he wants more money from the EU . He made this clear at a press conference following the meeting with Merkel. Greens politicians are against concessions to Turkey.
After Merkel's visit to Erdogan - new debate on refugee pact?
Update at 20.40 clock: Germany and the EU are likely to face another violent debate about the refugee pact with Turkey - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would like further payments, as he announced at a joint press conference on Friday. He described Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) as an advocate for such a move. The extent to which such demands should be addressed is already very controversial.
“The EU has promised us six billion euros. Our spending is now well over $ 40 billion, "Erdogan said, according to a report by Bild . There was only an "honest approximation on this question" from Merkel. "But just talking about money doesn't mean that the money ends up in your pocket," Erdogan added. The EU had recently even cut pre-accession aid to Turkey, but left the budget for the deal untouched.
Merkel visits Erdogan - Green politicians speak out against concessions
Meanwhile, several Green politicians spoke out against concessions to Erdogan . "Erdogan will never open the border," said Jürgen Trittin to n-tv in the morning. "Then a large part of the opposition would leave the country en masse. He can't be interested in that." They are "silly" threats. His party friends Cem Özdemir and Danyal Bayaz told Bild.de that there was no reason to be blackmailed by Turkey . "We will not look away when people, for example journalists and opposition figures, are locked up," they said on the website.
Meanwhile, the architect of the EU-Turkey agreement, Gerald Knaus , sees the agreement in danger - it threatens to fail “due to the inability of the EU ”, he told the portal watson.de . The return of refugees to Turkey does not work, he warned. Knaus called for support for the Greek authorities, the asylum system there is on the verge of collapse: "If people live in the Greek islands for months in conditions that we cannot find in Pakistan, we have a situation in which the EU has broken the law, by violating conventions and standards, somehow trying to keep people from coming. This is not worthy of Europe . "
In an interview with Munich's Merkur *, Knaus had already cleaned up in the summer about a “myth” in connection with the admission of refugees in Europe.
Merkel visits Erdogan - and speaks about 60 Germans in Turkish custody
Update at 6:59 p.m .: In addition to coping with the refugee crisis, the meeting between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also involved almost 60 German citizens , who according to a media report from December are currently being held in Turkish custody due to various allegations. She would have agreed with Erdogan to discuss "case by case" again, said Merkel.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is a guest of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
© AFP / OZAN KOSE
Update at 5:04 p.m .: Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has promised the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan further help from the EU in coping with the refugee crisis. "I can very well imagine that the EU will provide support beyond the two by three billion euros," said Merkel on Friday after a conversation with Erdogan in Istanbul. This will be discussed in the EU bodies.
Merkel thanks Erdogan for efforts in helping refugees
"What Turkey is doing here is remarkable," Merkel praised the Turkish commitment. "And everyone can imagine - Turkey has about as many inhabitants as Germany - if you accommodate 3.5 or almost four million refugees from Syria, what an effort it is and I would like to thank Turkey very much for that."
The EU pledged six billion euros to Ankara in 2016 to care for Syrian refugees in Turkey. This was part of a refugee pact that obliged the Turkish side to take back all new migrants arriving on the Greek islands and to take action against trafficking gangs.
With refugee numbers on the Greek islands increasing and Erdogan's multiple threats, there is concern that the EU-Turkey refugee pact is at risk. The Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu had alleged violations of the refugee agreement before Merkel's EU trip. The EU has not yet committed billions of dollars in funds, said Cavusoglu.
Merkel visits Erdogan - "Secret Report" reveals dramatic details on the refugee situation
Update of January 24: Chancellor Angela Merkel is a guest of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday. It should have been a positive start. Merkel pointed to the good scientific cooperation between Turkey and Germany. Education is an important issue, the Chancellor explained and specifically addressed the education of refugees - so that one day they would be able to return to their homeland and rebuild them. Merkel emphasized the concern for Syrian refugees.
The situation on the Greek islands has recently worsened due to overcrowded refugee accommodation - also because, despite the refugee pact from Turkey, more boats with migrants have left for Europe. And the mild tones between Merkel and Erdogan after their meeting can hardly hide the fact that the relationship between the EU and Turkey is crumbling. Even more: the refugee deal with Turkey fluctuates. Even before the meeting with the Chancellor, Turkey put pressure on it - the EU is fulfilling its part of the contractual agreements, according to the accusation.
Merkel / Erdogan: Secret document - Turkey wants to take harsher measures against refugees
Shortly before the visit, the Bild newspaper published findings from a “secret report” by the federal government . This is to indicate that Turkey wants to take measures against the "high number of illegally staying Syrian refugees". The reason is the "high migration pressure, the lower acceptance among the population and the tense economic situation in the country".
Chancellor Merkel visits Istanbul
© dpa / Ahmed Deeb
According to this, several Turkish provinces should refuse to accept more refugees . In Istanbul, tough measures have already been taken against the refugees who are in Turkey without a permit. Since December, a law "to tighten up asylum and deportation practices" has been in force in Turkey, which means that rejected asylum seekers should have their social assistance and health care removed. The refugees should pay for their journey home. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are said to have already left the Turkish capital.
According to this, several Turkish provinces should refuse to accept more refugees. Around 4.2 million refugees are said to currently live in Turkey. Including 3.7 million Syrians.
Before Merkel's visit: Turkey makes serious accusation - breach of refugee deal?
Statement of origin from January 23, 2020:
Istanbul - Two days before Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) visited Istanbul, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu accused the EU of failing to pay the full amount promised in the refugee agreement. The EU had promised to pay three billion euros each in late 2016 and late 2018, Cavusoglu told the "Bild" newspaper. "Now it is 2020, and we still haven't fully received the first three billion euros." And not only that. In recent days and months more and more Germans have been arrested in Turkey. Now Turkey is building up massive pressure with the new accusation. After all, Merkel is considered the great initiator of the refugee agreement with Turkey.
In addition to the financial agreements, Cavusoglu criticized that other agreements had not been met. There was no expansion of the customs union and no new chapter in the EU accession negotiations . "For the reasons I have just mentioned, we could have opened our borders. We were entitled to do so, but we did not. Our President said: Then take the refugees - and you perceived this as a threat ? " Despite everything, Turkey is for a continuation of the agreement.
Merkel visits Erdogan: Turkey raises serious accusations
Merkel will travel to Istanbul on Friday to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan . The main topics of the talks are likely to be refugee policy and the conflicts in Syria and Libya - as before at Merkel's Libya conference in Berlin. With refugee numbers on the Greek islands increasing and Erdogan's multiple threats, there is concern that the EU-Turkey refugee pact is at risk.
Merkel is visiting Turkey on Friday.
© dpa / Michael Kappeler
Since the agreement concluded in March 2016, the number of Syrians entering the European Union via Turkey has dropped significantly. Recently, however, their number increased again. Many of them are fleeing the Turkish coast by boat to the Greek Aegean Islands, as they did at the 2015 crisis.
In the agreement , Ankara undertook to take back all refugees arriving in the Greek Aegean Islands. In return, the EU promised billions in aid, accelerated visa facilitation and the modernization of the customs union.
Before Merkel's visit to Turkey: Erdogan government accuses EU of breaking refugee agreement
Meanwhile, Amnesty International asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to stand up for detained intellectual Osman Kavala and other accused activists before visiting Turkey. "Concrete steps to end the repression against human rights defenders must be the focus of talks between Angela Merkel and the Turkish president," said Amnestys Turkey expert Andrew Gardner on Thursday. It was crucial that Kavala be released and accused human rights activists like Amnesty Honorary Chairman Taner Kilic are acquitted.
Kavala has been in custody for more than two years. The European Court of Human Rights ordered his release in December. However, the Turkish judiciary ignored the verdict and Kavala remained in detention. The intellectual and 15 other accused are accused of attempting to overthrow the government-critical Gezi protests in 2013. The Turkish AKP is considering impunity for rapists under certain circumstances.
dpa / nai
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
