Accession of Turkey to the European Union

Turkey's presidential spokesman has called on the European Union on March 10 to take concrete steps and fulfil its promises.

"Turkey fulfilled its responsibilities within the March 18 Turkey-EU agreement," Ibrahim Kalın said on Twitter, referring to the 2016 deal between the EU and Turkey.

"Europe's border doesn't start at the Turkish-Greek border, it starts at Turkey's southern and eastern frontiers," Turkey's Anadolou Agency quoted Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying on Tuesday.

Anadolou quoted the minister as saying in an interview given to the state-run Turkish agency earlier on Tuesday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday that a 2016 agreement between Turkey and the European Union needs to be updated, taking into account developments in Syria, and that Ankara was ready to work constructively on the issue.

Turkish Ambassador to France İsmail Hakkı Musa on March 9 met with French Minister of State for European Affairs Amelie de Montchalin and discussed Turkey's relations with the European Union, the migration crisis and developments in Syria's Idlib province.

The European Union and Turkey agreed to review a 4-year-old deal on managing migrants and refugees in an effort to settle a dispute that sent thousands of people to the Turkey-Greece border in hopes of reaching Europe, top EU officials said on March 9.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered the Turkish coastguard to stop migrants from making risky Aegean Sea crossings.
Thousands of migrants have massed on the land border with Greece after officials said last week that Turkey would not prevent migrants from leaving for EU territory, sparking violence and an escalating row between Ankara and Brussels.

Turkey has made very serious arrangements in its legislation to protect women's rights and eliminate discriminatory practices, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, stressing that societies that discriminate against women would not have a promising future.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday that migration regulations between Turkey and the European Union were not working and needed to be revised, the Turkish presidency said.

As thousands of people near Turkey's border with Greece wait to cross over to the European Union, a migration deal the EU and Turkey reached four years ago has become a political football.The two sides accuse each other of failing to respect their commitments.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on March 2 called for a "protected zone" in northwestern Syria for hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing the attacks of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Speaking at a news conference in the capital Berlin, Merkel expressed grave concern over escalating tensions in Idlib, a northwestern Syrian province, just across the Turkish border.