Turkey to cancel agreements with EU on migrants if visa-free travel promise broken

The Turkish government has warned the European Union that it will cancel its agreements with the bloc on the migration crisis if the bloc fails to keep its word on a deal to provide visa-free travel to Turkish citizens by June.

The warning by Ankara came as various EU bodies have been set to review the implementation of the plan a month after Turkey and the EU sealed a controversial deal intended to halt illegal migration flows to Europe in return for financial and political rewards for Ankara. 

"Turkey is a serious interlocutor. It does what is has promised and will permit no concessions on the implementation of what it has been promised," Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu said late on April 18.

"This is a mutual commitment. If the EU cannot take the necessary steps required of it, then of course it cannot be expected of Turkey to take these steps," Davuto?lu said at a press conference when asked about reports suggesting that the EU was set to bring in limitations to the deal with Turkey in regards to the prospects of visa-free travel.

A March 18 accord outlined measures to reduce Europe's worst migration crisis since World War II, including stepped-up checks by Turkey and the return of migrants who land on Greek islands to Turkey.

In return, Turkey is slated to receive benefits, including visa-free travel for its citizens to Europe by June "at the latest."

But the prospect of visa-free travel for Turks has been hugely controversial in some EU countries, where leaders have been accused of bending over to fulfill Turkey's demands.

The European Commission is scheduled to present its findings on the EU-Turkey agreement on April 20, while the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home...