Correspondent in Istanbul
It was five years ago, almost to the day.
On September 2, 2015, little Aylan Kurdi, a 3-year-old Syrian, was stranded on a beach in Bodrum, Turkey, after trying to cross the Mediterranean illegally to reach Europe with his family.
The photo of his body, published on social networks, moves the whole world, forcing Europe to open its eyes to a drama that is playing out at its doors.
Torn between its humanist values and the protectionist outburst of some of its members, the European Union decided to outsource the migration issue to Ankara.
The agreement, signed in March 2016, consists of reducing departures to Greece, in exchange for financial assistance to Turkey.
But that was underestimating President Erdogan's ability to instrumentalize this file.
“Europe has taken the decision to park the vast majority of migrants in a country that is being paid billions of euros to take care of them.
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