EU Meeting Protocol Leaked: Erdoğan Corners EU via Refugees
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The protocol of “refugee crisis” meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and European Union (EU) senior authorities Jean Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk have leaked.
In the meeting protocols published on euro2day internet news website in Greece, Erdoğan threatens Junker and Tusk by making the refugees in Turkey get into buses and sending them the European Union over Greece and Bulgaria.
Juncker on the other hand, admits that they have postponed the EU Progress Report which was published on November 8, until after the November 1 General Elections.
The following conversation has leaked from the meeting according to Umut Özkırımlı’s report from Diken internet news website:
Erdoğan: We put the refugees on the buses and send them over EU
* Erdoğan asked whether the proposal would be for 3 billion or 6 billion euro. When Juncker confirmed the 3 billion, Erdoğan said that Turkey didn’t need the EU’s money anyway. ‘We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and we can put the refugees on busses. If you say 3 billion for two years, no need to discuss further’.
* Erdoğan asks rhetorically: ‘So how will you deal with the refugees if you don’t get a deal? Kill the refugees?’”.
EU progress report deliberately postponed after the elections
* Junker says if Schengen is gone, then Turkey can have no visa-free deal with the EU. Will have to go bilateral. Turkey holds the key, but if we fail to honour the 5 October deal, we’ll have to look for other solutions. Please note that we postponed the progress report until after the Turkish elections. And we got criticized for this delay. When it comes to money, Donald and I cannot continue changing figures; we need clarity. Within two weeks. We have agreed to open new chapters.
* Erdoğan says that the delay of the progress report did not help AKP to win the elections. Anyway, the report was an insult. Who prepared this report? How can you come up with this? It’s not the real Turkey. You never came to me to hear the truth. Most Turks don’t want to become members of the EU because of reports like that.
Junker says that the delay of the progress report was done on Erdoğan’s request. Why else would we be willing to get criticized for it? I thought you want to be reconciled with the EU. Now I feel deceived, because we have really risen to the challenge. European Conferences were de-continued in 2004, but we believe it is time to reconsider this.
Erdoğan: You have not kept a single promise!
* Erdoğan asks Juncker to name one delivery, one delivery, so far? Juncker notes that resources are being amased, that there is readiness to move on accession, that visa liberalisation will be sped up, while noting that these decisions are not easy for the EU to take.
* Erdoğan insists that the EU hasn’t done anything fır Turkey. The money is for refugees, not Turkey. Moreover, you are using out pre-accession money. It’s really nothing. No chapters at all. We have waited for 53 years. You have been mocking us.
* Juncker interjects that during these 53 years, Turkey hasn’t always been a democracy for example. Erdoğan says neither were Germany and the UK, which lead to a great war. Nor Greece, Portugal, Spain etc. And juncker shouldn’t compare Turkey with Luxemburg. “Luxemburg is just like a town in Turkey”.
Erdoğan: I am not a third world country leader
* Juncker comes back to the need to have a deal done in 15 days. We are working hard and we have treated you as a prince in Brussel. Erdoğan says “like a prince? Of course, I’m not representing a third world country”. Juncker notes that the EU never has 28+1 Summits, but for Turkey, we are ready. Erdoğan says “Of course, I would have done the same. But don’t smear it in my face. (Turning to PEC) “I represent 80 mn people. Talk like that from Juncker is disgraceful”.
* Erdoğan says “The EU doesn’t want to have Turkey in the EU I think. But then tell us clearly. That would be a relief. And Juncker thinks his report won the elections?...You just want us to keep all the refugees. (EKN/DG)