site.btaBulgarian Party Warns that EU-Turkey Deal Has Given More Leverage to Erdogan's "Dictatorial Regime"

Bulgarian Party Warns that EU-Turkey Deal Has Given More Leverage to Erdogan's "Dictatorial Regime"

Sofia, March 8 (BTA) - A Bulgarian parliamentary party stated on Tuesday that the demands which Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu have raised with the EU are very arrogant, while EU leaders have exhibited a double standard and an astonishing lack of responsibility in their approach to Turkey.

"Turkey is definitely failing to observe its earlier 'agreement' with the EU and continues to inundate Europe with illegal immigrants," the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Bulgarian National Movement (IMRO-BND) wrote in a media statement in connection with the Turkey-EU meeting in Brussels. IMRO-BND belongs to the Patriotic Front coalition which is represented in the Bulgarian National Assembly.

"Turkey has drastically violated international law by illegally occupying foreign territory in the sovereign country of Syria. Turkey is brazenly interfering in the internal affairs of EU member states, such as Bulgaria and Greece. Turkey is trampling on the freedom of speech, using military and police forces to take over the editorial offices of opposition media," the party further said.

It noted that despite all that, the EU has promised to waive its visa requirement for Turkish travellers and to open new chapters in its membership negotiations with Turkey, and has paid "a twice larger ransom." "This absurd 'agreement' clearly attests to Brussels' incapacity, double-dealing, hypocrisy and double standards. The agreement solves nothing but gives more leverage to Erdogan's criminal and dictatorial regime," the statement reads.

It warns that if the EU lifts its visa requirement for Turkish travellers, Europe (including Bulgaria) will be flooded by Turkish emissaries. "Considering the already unacceptable Turkish political and economic invasion of Bulgaria, this will pose a direct danger to our national security," it says.

According to the party, the only viable solution to the migration crisis is for the EU to revise its policy towards the Middle East countries and support the secular governments and the factors in the region which are genuinely struggling against the terrorism of the Islamic State and other radical Islamist groups. "The EU must lift the sanctions against Syria, because they have led to economic ruin, unemployment and poverty, thus causing hundreds of thousands of peaceful Syrians to migrate to Europe," the IMRO-BND stated.

It urged the Bulgarian government to take a similar stance to that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.