Erdoğan approves law on Turkey-EU readmission deal

Erdoğan’s approval of the law was announced by his press office late on May 18, with a note that it was sent to the Prime Ministry in order to be published in the Official Gazette, thus to enter into force. As it is not published on national holidays, the Official Gazette was not published on May 19, the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day.

Referring to a series of summits between Turkey and the EU on Nov. 29, March 7 and March 18, which led to the agreement, Turkish and European leaders said the aim was to stop tragedies in the Aegean Sea, to thwart human traffickers and to manage the migration in a controlled way

“From the very beginning, some people have been trying to distort this matter by spelling disaster. They say ‘Turkey will receive all the illegal migrants in the EU’ or ‘Turkey will become a refugee buffer zone’. They are just trying to unsettle the Turkish people with lies and groundless remarks. They claim the readmission agreement makes it possible to deport without any questions or conditions, which is also distorting the truth.

There can be no such thing because readmission is only possible if the relevant country approves and consents,” Erdoğan said in a speech delivered on April 7.

“There are precise conditions. If the European Union does not take the necessary steps then Turkey will not implement the agreement,” he also warned, saying that “everything promised and specified by the accord” must be put in place by June 2016 “at the latest.”