Europeans should realize that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot help them solve the migration problem, but rather tries only to boost his country's economy at the European Union's expense, Bouthaina Shaaban, a political and media adviser to the Syrian president, told Sputnik in an interview
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th March, 2020) Europeans should realize that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot help them solve the migration problem, but rather tries only to boost his country's economy at the European Union's expense, Bouthaina Shaaban, a political and media adviser to the Syrian president, told Sputnik in an interview.
Under the 2016 deal with the EU, Turkey agreed to take back asylum seekers from Greece in exchange for funding for the migrants who were already in Turkey. However, earlier this year, amid the standoff with Damascus in the Syrian province of Idlib, Erdogan said Turkey would open its borders with the EU to refugees wishing to cross over to the EU. On Tuesday, the Turkish leader announced that a summit on migration problems would be held in Istanbul on March 17, with the participation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
"I think the Europeans should know that Erdogan is not the one who has the solution for the migrants, that he is the problem. He is the one who caused all this migration from Syria. And I would like also to put many question marks around the figures that Erdogan gives to Europe in order to get as much money as he can from European countries to help his staggering economy," Shaaban said, referring to the money Ankara has asked for to support refugees hosted by Turkey.
