Turkey and the EU came back to the negotiating table on Thursday and Friday in Brussels in the latest installment of a long-running attempt to hammer out a deal that will help stem the flow of refugees into Europe.
Germany, Sweden, Austria, and a number of other countries are quite literally breaking under the pressure and everyone involved fears things could get far worse as winter turns to spring and the Balkan route thaws.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared that democracy, freedom and the rule of law are dead – amid a government crackdown on “dissidents”. Following the recent bomb attack in Ankara, Turkey have declared all-out war against the freedom of its citizens by banning social media in the country, and declaring all journalists to be terrorist sympathisers. “Democracy, freedom and the rule of law,” have “absolutely no value any longer,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told local leaders on Wednesday.
Well, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s worst nightmare is about to come true.
For days there have been rumors that Syria might attempt to adopt some manner of federal system at peace talks in Geneva as a kind of compromise on the way to negotiating a political solution to the country’s five-year conflict that’s killed some 300,000 people and created the worst refugee crisis Europe has seen since World War II.
The political and media adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said it is now time for the US to put pressure on Turkey and Saudi Arabia to stop supporting the terrorists that are wreaking havoc in Syria. According to Press TV, Bouthaina Shaaban made the remarks during an interview with the Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen television channel on Tuesday, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that “the main part” of the Russian forces would start to withdraw from Syria.
Turkish authorities have reportedly imposed media restrictions and blocked access to social media following the deadly suicide car bombing in the Turkish capital Ankara. Some media broadcasters say that they have been subject to a ban on covering aspects of the explosion. Turkey’s telecommunications authority, TIB, reportedly blocked access to social media after a court-ordered ban was imposed. RT reports: Access to Facebook, Twitter, and a number of other sites has been blocked because images showing victims of the tragedy were being shared on those platforms, according to the court.