Turkey and Azerbaijan have Adopted the Policy of Blackmailing

• 10.24.2016, 19:24
•  Europe,  Region,  World

David Brin

The policy of blackmailing seems to be quite a common feature for "two brothers" – Azerbaijan and Turkey. If the first one uses this policy towards the OSCE MG Co-Chairs, the latter implements it towards Europe. And what is even more interesting - both seem to succeed, as they have precedents, which have not been prevented.

In case of Turkey, a good precedent of successful policy of blackmailing became the migrant deal. Visa-free regime with the EU is now the next goal of Turkey, which seems will again succeed. Turkey not only refuses to adopt anti-terror rules, as a precondition for receiving visa-free regime, but also threatens to break the deal with the EU.

Recently, the Turkish Foreign Minister has demanded that the EU drop visa requirements for Turkish citizens by October, as well as has threatened to unleash a flood of migrants on Europe, The National Interest informs. 

In his turn, Turkey’s EU Minister Omer Celik declared that "Forcing this (changes in anti-terrorism laws) despite the situation is putting a roadblock in front of the visa liberalization, and therefore we will assume they aren't keeping the promises they made. In that case we won’t carry out the readmission deal, and we will cancel it if necessary," he said, Reuters reports.

Though Germany has said that Europe "must not be blackmailed" over the issue, the interview of French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to Hurriyet revealed just the opposite. In his interview Ayrault said that talks are continuing with the aim of satisfying the criteria that still need to be fulfilled to enable the implementation of the visa liberalization agreement, also adding:

"Turkey and the EU need to work together more than ever before, and that is in their interests. Strong commitments were made on March 18 during the EU-Turkey Summit, which will enable us to respond better, collectively, to the historic challenge we face and to save lives, by acting to combat illegal migration."

 The fact is the EU has become dependent over Turkey and this has created quite difficult situation for it. However, one thing is clear - the more the EU yields to Turkey's blackmail, the more it will weaken its positions...