Refugee pact appears in danger of falling apart as Turkish president tells Europe: ‘We’ll go our way, you go yours’

A visa-free travel deal between the EU and Turkey was on the brink of collapse on Friday night, after Turkey’s president insisted he would not change his country’s anti-terrorism laws, a key condition of the agreement. “We’ll go our way, you go yours,” said Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

When the European commission made a conditional offer of visa-free travel earlier this week, it said Ankara must rewrite its anti-terrorism laws because they were used to prosecute journalists and government critics.

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Erdoğan gave a defiant speech the day after Ahmet Davutoğlu stepped down as prime minister and leader of the ruling Justice and Development, or AK, party, over insurmountable differences with the president, in a move interpreted by critics and opposition politicians as a “palace coup”.



Davutoğlu’s departure raises questions about the visa deal and opens up the prospect that the EU-Turkey refugee pact could fall apart. The softly-spoken former diplomat had been the main architect on the Turkish side of the controversial deal under which migrants arriving on the Greek islands are sent back to Turkey.

His departure is a blow to European leaders, who did not hide the fact they were sorry to see him go. “Ahmet Davutoğlu was one of the most reliable and constructive interlocutors between the European Union and the Republic of Turkey,” said Martin Schulz, the president of the European parliament.

“I hope that the future Turkish government – whoever will be the next prime minister – will continue that constructive line of cooperation for which Ahmet Davutoğlu was very representative.”

The official line is that Davutoğlu’s departure changes nothing. “Agreements are negotiated with states and governments, not individuals,” Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told Der Spiegel.

But behind the facade of public diplomacy, European leaders will be alarmed by reports that Turkey’s next prime minister will be recruited in Erdoğan’s image. Candidates tipped for the post include Berat Albayrak, the energy minister and Erdogan’s son-in-law.

Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, said Davutoğlu’s departure was “bad news for Europe … and also for Turkey”. One senior EU source recently described Erdoğan as “unpredictable”.

A spokeswoman for the European commission declined to comment on Erdoğan’s latest remarks, but referred to statements earlier this week when the EU executive made its visa-free travel offer to Turkey.

In order to get visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in the 26 countries of Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone by the end of June, EU officials insisted that Ankara must meet five crucial political and technical standards, outstanding from a longer list of 72.



Frans Timmermans, vice-president of the European commission, said Turkey would not get “a free ride” and urged its government to undertake urgent action, including changing domestic anti-terrorism legislation. Human rights groups say Turkey’s anti-terror laws impede freedom of expression and have been used frequently to indict journalists and other government critics.

On Friday the threat faced by journalists in Turkey was illustrated when a gunman shot at prominent editor Can Dündar outside a courthouse in Istanbul, just before the verdict in his trial on charges of revealing state secrets was due to be announced.

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The Turkish government insists that the draconian laws are a necessary tool in order to counter the threat of Kurdish and Islamic State terrorism both at home and abroad. “It’s impossible to revise the legislation and practices on terrorism while our country continues its intense fight against several terrorist organisations,” the EU minister, Volkan Bozkır, told a Turkish daily on Thursday.

Turkish leaders have accused the EU of indifference to the terrorist threat their country faces. Erdoğan took up that theme on Friday when he referred to a demonstration by Kurdish activists carrying flags of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) in Brussels ahead of an EU-Turkey summit in March.

“Why don’t you first change your mentality that allows terrorists to pitch tents next to the European parliament?” Erdoğan said. “So you let terrorists pitch tents, enable them, and then say that this is all in the name of democracy.”

In the same speech Erdoğan pressed for constitutional changes that would allow for a rapid implementation of a presidential system in Turkey, which, critics fear, will concentrate too much power in his hands.

“We are at a point of no return,” Erdoğan said. “I am confident that a new constitution and all other requirements will institutionalise [the presidential system].” He added that this was not his personal ambition, but “a necessity for the country”.



Even without Erdoğan’s intervention, agreeing visa-free travel for Turkey was never going to be easy. The European parliament, which has to approve the deal, has said it would block the agreement, unless Turkey meets all 72 of the EU conditions.

MEP Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the liberal group in the parliament, highlighted anti-terrorist laws, which “have been used in a brutal clampdown” against journalists. “As long as this remains the case, the European parliament should not support this proposal for visa liberalisation,” he said.