Merkel ready to cave to Turkish pressure on visas: UK diplomats

PanARMENIAN.Net - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is ready to cave in to Turkish “blackmail” and grant visa-free access to the Schengen zone for 75 million people, despite President Erdogan refusing to meet key EU conditions, according to a leaked cable from Britain’s ambassador in Berlin, the Telegraph reports.

Erdogan is ready to abandon a deal to halt he migrant flow into Europe and “open the floodgates” unless Europe gives way, diplomats fear.

For weeks, the EU and Ankara have been locked in a high-stakes standoff as Erdogan refused to rewrite sweeping anti-terrorism laws that have been used to prosecute academics and journalists, a precondition of visa-free travel.

It is the key sweetener in the fragile pact of March 18 that has – for now – seen Turkish authorities halt the exodus over the Aegean to Greece. In public, leaders have vowed there would be no deal until all conditions were met.

But Sir Sebastian Wood, in a leaked diplomatic telegram (‘DipTel'), wrote that the Chancellor’s officials are ready to strike a “compromise formulation” on the terrorism law, the Telegraph said.

He wrote: “Despite the tough public line, there are straws in the wind to suggest that in extremis the Germans would compromise further to preserve the EU-Turkey deal.

“Merkel has begun to paint the deal in humanitarian terms, (pointing out that since it came into force, only 9 people have drowned), to pre-empt human rights opposition. Officials here have shown some interest, behind the scenes, about possible compromise formulations on the anti-terror law."

The visa waiver deal had been due to kick in on July 1, and there were fears that Erdogan would increase migrant flows if he did not get his way.