Germany willing to including Turkey on EU list of 'safe countries': officialOctober 15, 2015 - 13:20 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The German government is willing to support an EU proposal to put Turkey on a list of "safe countries" whose citizens have little chance of being granted asylum in Europe, a senior official in Berlin told Reuters on Wednesday, October 14. "I could imagine that in a broader context it would make sense to put Turkey on the list of safe countries," a senior German government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity, apparently signaling a reversal of opinion in Berlin. Germany has previously been skeptical of the proposal, mainly because of Ankara's human rights record and its treatment of the Kurdish minority. In past decades, many Turkish Kurds have been granted asylum in Germany and elsewhere in the EU. Ankara has asked to be put on the "safe country" list. Germany does not expect a decision on the matter at the EU summit in Brussels, the official added. He said the issue might be raised during Merkel's talks with Erdogan and Davutoglu. As a bitterly-divided EU struggles to cope with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, securing cooperation of non-member Turkey is seen as increasingly central to managing the problem. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |