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"In case anybody missed it. Last week was a very strange one for Turkey. On Thursday the reports came in that Turkey had reached an agreement with the EU regarding the repatriation of illegal immigrants. And then on Friday the reports came in that the agreement had been thrown out by Turkey, because, basically the EU had refused to stick to its end of the bargain.
It was a strong move by Turkey, indicative of their growing presence in the world. They had thrown out this agreement, based on what seemed like the flimsiest of grounds. That is on the face of it.
However, Turkey was entering into this agreement on the grounds that reaching an agreement on this matter was the final hurdle to Turkey's being granted the same visa-free access as several other non-EU countries were recently given.
So, when the EU said that a visa-free deal was not a definite after the agreement was ratified, only that it would be re-examined, Turkey swiftly rejected the agreement.
When looked at in more detail one has to agree with Turkey, or at least understand why it took such decisive action. Turkey is already extremely put out that several countries that are not even officialy EU applicant countries were recently granted visa-free travel, while it, staunch ally, NATO member and applicant country since 2005 is kept out in the cold.
No doubt the hope is that their decisive action will be a short sharp shock to Brussels, time will tell if it worked.
