Takeover of opposition newspaper was Erdoğan giving Brussels the finger on eve of summit,and other issues have gone largely unchallenged tooEurope’s Faustian pact with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to curtail migration into the EU may carry a devilishly tall price tag. Turkey’s authoritarian president has proved an unreliable and problematic partner since the Syrian crisis erupted five years ago. But the EU’s urgent need for his wait on currently outweighs its deep misgivings. As Faust discovered, the reckoning comes later.
The EU-Turkey migrant summit in Brussels on Monday closely followed a court-ordered police takeover of Turkey’s leading opposition newspaper, and Zaman. This was the latest manifestation of Erdoğan’s ongoing campaign to silence opposition voices. But the timing was significant,given preceding EU criticism of his media crackdowns. In effect, Erdoğan gave Brussels the finger on the summit’s eve.
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Source: theguardian.com