Angela Merkel needs Ankara to help alleviate the migrant crisis

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The European powerhouse and Turkey have previously been locked in a high-stakes standoff over Ankara’s refusal to reform its strict terror laws in return for visa-free travel and £2.5billion to clamp down on the migrant crisis.

However in an apparent U-turn Mrs Merkel travelled to Brussels on Thursday to meet Turkish officials for further talks on their country’s decades-long bid to join the EU.

Tensions have been at boiling point between Brussels bureaucrats and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after Turkish authorities arrested three prominent press freedom campaigners.

But the Chancellor’s role reversal could be a make-or-break attempt to defuse a crisis, in which more than a million asylum seekers arrived in Germany this year. Mrs Merkel’s ill-fated open door refugee policy delivered a crushing blow to her leadership popularity.