Devil Demand His Due
Chancellor Merkel’s deal with Turkey is unraveling fast.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan demands €3 billion for refugees immediately, to do with it what he pleases.
The EU says the money must go through UN agencies, strictly for the benefit of refugees.
The Financial Times reports Turkey Demands EU Hand Over €3bn for Refugees.
A row has erupted between Turkey and the EU over billions of pounds in aid for Syrian refugees, casting fresh doubt on a fragile deal to halt the flow of people towards Europe.
Turkey is demanding that the EU hand over €3bn promised under the landmark agreement so that Turkish authorities can spend it as they see fit. Brussels has resisted, prompting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to accuse the 28-member union of “mocking the dignity” of the Turkish nation.
Ankara is asking Brussels to hand over €3bn — funded from the EU budget and by contributions from member states — directly to the Turkish government and its agencies. It wants to use the money to build new schools and new hospitals for the country’s 2.75m registered Syrian refugees, and to upgrade refugee camps.
The European Commission is insisting that the funds must be directed through UN agencies and international NGOs in accordance with its strict rules on aid spending. So far, €190m has been approved, with grants to organisations including the World Food Programme and International Organisation for Migration, and charities such as the Danish Refugee Council. The Commission has promised to assign a total of €1bn by the end of July.
President Erdogan this week made plain his displeasure at the dispute. Speaking on Tuesday, he said: “This country is looking after 3m refugees. What did they say? We’ll give you €3bn. Well, have they given us any of that money until now? No. They’re still stroking the ball around midfield. If you’re going to give it, just give it.”
He added: “These administrators come here, tour our camps, then ask at the same time for more projects. Are you kidding us? What projects? We have 25 camps running. You’ve seen them. There is no such thing as a project. We’ve implemented them.”
Fuat Oktay, head of Turkey’s disaster and emergency management authority (AFAD), the agency responsible for co-ordinating the country’s refugee response, told the Financial Times that officials in Brussels had proposed a compromise. It would see the likes of the World Health Organisation or Unicef working in partnership with Turkish government departments. But Dr Oktay said that Turkey rejected this suggestion. “Our approach is that they can directly work us,” he said. “Directly. That’s going to be increasing the efficiency and the effectivity of every single penny that’s going to be used and spent by the EU.”
Turkey, he insisted, knew best how to look after Syrians in the country. “We’ve been running the operations on a daily basis so we do know what their needs are,” he said. “And those needs cannot wait.” He accused European officials of being fixated on “bureaucracies, rules and procedures” and urged Brussels to find away around them.
The European Commission insists that it was made clear from the outset that most of the money must go to aid organisations. “Funding under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey supports refugees in the country,” said a spokesman. “It is funding for refugees and not funding for Turkey.”
Question of Trust
Actually, Erdogan’s reasoning makes sense, assuming he could be trusted, which he can’t. There is no trust on either side, which there shouldn’t be.
At some point in the future (as soon as Turkey gets the money it is owed (€6 Billion actually), it will demand still more money.
There is always the threat that at some point in the future, Erdogan will say “More money or I release all the refugees”.
One should not make deals with dictator blackmailers.
Meanwhile, Turkish 75-80 million Turkish citizens would have visa-free access to Europe. Among them are many millions Turks angry with Erdogan, 15 million or so Turkish Kurds, and an unknown number of potential terrorists.
As I have said before, the EU should be grateful for this opportunity to step away from Merkel’s ill-advised deal.
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Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Merkel will be remembered as the “German Chamberlain”…
“Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan demands €3 billion for refugees immediately, to do with it what he pleases.
The EU says the money must go through UN agencies, strictly for the benefit of refugees.”
…
Oh, I see the problem
He who controls the purse strings reaps the kickbacks.
That is the gist of it, and as usual EU has gone completely the wrong way about it.
Why are they waving money at Erdogan in exchange for concessions and then demanding that they spend it themselves? Of course Turkey will feel insulted.
The offer should have been to fund, set up, and run UN refugee camps under Turkish supervision / in coordination with Turkey. No more. At that point EU has every grounds to reject migrants given that it is funding safe haven in Turkey, and is on the ground to verify and maintain conditions. If Turkey were to not help in witholding migrants, a.k.a border control, then the refugees/migrants would become a Turkish problem first due to withdrawing support for the refugee camps.
Instead EU is demanding/bribing Turkey to let them try their hand at running the show…duh…all they had to do was offer to help out at one end on the ground under Turkish oversight without handing over a cent.
It is so obvious it can only be understood as an attempt at manipulation by EU, forcing Erdogan into a corner by inching their way over the decision process.
Refugees continue to be the tool of political hostility, except EU is so stupid as to act as if it has a better solution, which I suppose Erdogan will gladly help them to try to prove by forwarding migrants to EU if need be.
Crys the EU is just showing how it will work is Turkey joins the EMU. Brussels and Germany control the currency and where it will be spent. Not the sovereign country’s leader. Look at all of the indebted countries and you will find most of the money never hits a sovereign country. They line the creditors and corrupt politicians pockets.
Sooner or later the EU members will realize this. But what the heck they might as well tax to the max they can garner before it explodes. Kinda, sorta, like the penalty tax on countries that will no longer take refugees.
If you cannot win a war with the military all you have to do is start a financial war and kick their butts with ink and paper!!!!!!!!
Absolutely, there is an agenda and those in charge will have their way, or else they will have their way. I can quite easily imagine that Turkey is being framed, that Erdogan is being extended the soft integration, but if he does not play along ( which he won’t, and EU knows he won’t- because he is led to believe one thing when another is being pushed onto him) then there will be trouble in Turkey.
Look at how the press prepares us for this – a really bad guy who we have not stopped trying to make concessions to to solve the problems and differences. If EU does not get ITS way, as in extending influence in Turkey, Turkey acting as border patrol, integration of the Turkish population into EU by visa free travel, then I think trouble will start in Turkey.
The economy there is stalling, Erdogan has alienated various groups, there are scandals and social problems, and to put the icing on the cake is a large left leaning secular pro-EU crowd who will probably be a ‘bit upset’ to find their hopes of joining EU, their ability to travel there, has just been ruined by Erdogan (again) due to his ‘dictatorial ambitions’.
Why would Turkey agree to a deal like that? They obviously want the money for other purposes. If they have to spend 3B on camps it’s better to just let all refugees go to Germany.
“Why would Turkey agree to a deal like that ?”
When Syrian refugees started flowing into Turkey , do you think Turkey wanted responsibility for them ? Where was the international drive to pay for and contain the refugees in Turkey ? Instead the opposite was allowed or encouraged . Turkey, as a recognized ally, would have enforced a bargain that entailed restricting migrant flows in return for the alleviation of the burden and cost of managing refugees , if presented respectfully .
“If they have to spend 3B on camps it’s better to just let all refugees go to Germany.”
Who , the Turks ? Obviously .
EU ? Where is your doorstep…
I am not trying to paint a nice picture of Erdogan or the Turks , though it might seem that way , I am saying that the whole manner that everything has been gone about is incompetent beyond any suspicion – a person would have to meticulously plan to be that incompetent .
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/turkey-says-it-has-met-eu-visa-deal-criteria–delay-unacceptable/42149754
And the adviser to Erdogan, Burhan Kuzu, threatens that if EU makes wrong decisions, they will flood Europe with “refugees”. So, it is very cleat what Turkey has in mind. We make you an offer that you can’t refuse…
I just wonder can Merkel & co. go any lower? They have taken the dignity and credibility of EU project to the mud and I see no way that this is ever going to work.
http://m.focus.de/politik/videos/streit-um-visa-freiheit-erdogan-berater-wenn-eu-falsche-entscheidung-trifft-schicken-wir-fluechtlinge_id_5521187.html
Take the 3 Billion Euros and build a wall and pay for a military to enforce your borders.
Amazingly, oil rich muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Iran, and Oman have not taken a SINGLE muslim refugee.
How do they do it?
Pretty simple. No one calls them racists if they enforce their borders and don’t want rapists and jihadists living on the dole in their country. And illegals are jailed and them deported.
Those figures are false, as non-signatories to UN convention the many refugees taken in by many middle eastern countries are not counted as such… all part of the credibility battle as to authority on a subject.
Crys agree but they still must meet the ruling tribe leading the country. Sunni’s despise Shiites and will not take them. While Shiite lead countries will not take Sunni’s. And the beat goes on and the beat goes on.
Erdogan is sure to let the immigrant horde invade EU and the politicians that once all stated in public mind you, multi-culturalism does not work. Now they are once again doing what they stated did not work to look good for the most part.
In France there are places no European person would dare tread.
Erdogan has no reason not to let refugees and Turks flood Europe, but he insists on maintaining his own control in Turkey first. Refugees will move into EU with little help, Turks would like to without border restrictions… one or the other or both, but he won’t cede power in his country in return.
Most of the refugees are Sunni and you will find them everywhere but Iran, admitted and integrated usually, but in bordering countries such as Jordan and Turkey in camps, presenting a difficulty when camped ( not purposefully) to the host countries.
Unload the first camp and ferry them over the border into Greece. That should do the trick.
Erdogan smart, Merkel stupid. Regardless of whose side you are on.
Bankers started the Syrian civil war by printing food inflation. All this inflation that bankers keep printing oppresses the poor. Eliminating the bank’s war on the poor is a necessary part of a long run solution to the food wars across the oil patch, and the refugee crisis.