Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 2
By Anakhanum Hidayatova - Trend:
The EU will allocate Turkey the promised funds for support of refugees from Syria; otherwise, Turkey will have no reason to make extra efforts to support them by itself, said Timofei Bordachev, the Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University-Higher School of Economics of the Russian Federation.
The EU already acted dismissive towards Turkey for a long time, and largely itself provoked the situation of the late summer of 2015 [a dramatic influx of refugees, up to 10,000-12,000 people a day], Bordachev told Trend Feb. 2.
Currently, Turkey is hosting more than two million Syrian refugees on its territory. The Syrian refugee camps in the country accommodate about 300,000 people. The rest of them are spread across the provinces and cities of Turkey.
In Istanbul alone, there are currently 40,000 refugees from Syria. Ankara has so far spent $8 billion to upkeep the Syrian refugees.
Commenting on the question about the negotiations between the EU and Turkey on a visa-free regime, the expert supposed that the EU will do its utmost to delay these negotiations and strive to prevent the visa-free regime.
"The EU will pass to a visa-free regime with Ukraine at the end of 2016, and it will seriously reduce the burden on the labor market and hence the interest in cheap labor from Turkey," said Bordachev.
Earlier, the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said that the EU may introduce a visa-free regime with Turkey in the autumn of 2016, assuming Ankara implements all the necessary requirements.
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