Turkey Refuses to Change Anti-Terrorist Strategy to Meet EU Demands

Ankara does not intend to change its counterterrorism strategy in light of attacks, despite the need to meet conditions set by the EU under the deal on a visa-free regime.

ANKARA (Sputnik) — Turkey does not plan altering its counterterrorism strategy as required to meet conditions set by the European Union under the Turkey-EU deal on a visa-free regime, Turkish Minister of European Union Affairs Omer Celik said Thursday.

"The European Union wants us to make changes to our counter-terrorism strategy. We are physically fighting a terrorist organization, which cannot be defeated by all of the world's countries, and we will not change our anti-terrorist strategy. There needs to be a joint plan of action directed toward countering terrorism," Celik said as broadcast by the NTV news channel.

The comment comes as Turkey and the European Union start a new round of talks on Turkish accession to the bloc. The EU affairs minister is in Brussels are attending the talks. The sides are discussing chapter 33 of the accession process, which deals with economic and financial provisions to be made by prospective members.

In mid-March, Brussels and Ankara agreed on a deal under which Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the European Union through its territory in exchange for Syrian refugees accommodated in Turkey, on a one-for-one basis. In return, the 28-nation bloc pledged to accelerate the Turkish EU accession bid and introduce a visa-free regime between Turkey and the bloc.

In May, the European Commission recommended that the European Parliament vote on visa-free regime for Turkey once the country met all 72 conditions required by Brussels, notably those related to data protection and anti-terrorism laws, among other issues.