EU, Germany say “ball in Turkey's court” on visa waiver issue

PanARMENIAN.Net - Top European Union and German officials made clear Thursday, May 12 that Turkey must back off from its refusal to change its anti-terror laws if it hopes to secure visa-free travel to Europe for Turkish citizens, the Associated Press reports.

The visa waiver is one of the incentives offered by the EU, and Turkey has to fulfill 72 conditions to secure it.

Ankara has complied with most of them, but one has emerged as a major obstacle: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and others say Ankara won't narrow its definition of "terrorist" and "terrorist act." EU nations worry that the current laws can be used to target journalists and political dissenters.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier acknowledged that "we have a strong interest in this agreement on migration not collapsing."

However, he said he can't influence Ankara's stance on the anti-terror law and "the ball is in Turkey's court." He said that "if Turkey fulfills its commitments," the EU should, too, AP says.

The head of the EU's executive Commission, also speaking at a forum on European policy in Berlin, said Brussels is counting on Turkey sticking to the conditions — including the changes to anti-terror laws.

"That's how we agreed it with Turkey, and the consequence of the change in the office of the Turkish prime minister cannot be that agreements between the European Union and Turkey are disavowed," Jean-Claude Juncker said. "We put the greatest value on the conditions being fulfilled, otherwise this deal ... will not happen."

"If Mr. Erdogan is pursuing the strategy of denying Turks the right to free travel to Europe, then he will have to take responsibility for that to the Turkish people," Juncker said. "That isn't my problem. It will be his problem."

In Ankara, Erdogan argued that the ball is in the EU's court.

"In the upcoming period, we will either strengthen our relations with the European Union, and we will finalize this process, or we will find ourselves a new path," he said. "Our preference is to build a new Turkey together with our European friends. We shall now wait for our European friends' decision."