Turkey using refugee crisis to its advantage: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed William Jones, a member of the Executive Intelligence Review in Leesburg, to discuss the European Union (EU) summit on refugee crisis.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: I would think Turkey is sitting pretty; Ahmet Davutoglu goes into the meeting, can demand what it wants and even said that we will entertain the thought of non-Syrian refugees to come to Turkish soil. But is Turkey using the refugee crisis to its advantage?

Jones: Well Turkey certainly is using the refugee crisis to its advantage. They feel that they have a playing card with regard to the EU to do the other things that they want to do which is go after the Kurds without any punitive measures being taken by the EU, without any great outcry and to impose this new system which would essentially create a presidential, strong presidential system in Turkey moving away from the goals of Ataturk but it also shows the bankruptcy of the EU where the countries like Greece which have been under the tremendous austerity, which have been hit over the head by the EU economically, now have to bear the full part of the burden in terms of these refugees. So it is really a bankruptcy declaration for the European Union as well.  

Press TV: So if Turkey takes the three billion dollars, does that mean that the EU would get rid of its asylum problem through Turkey by throwing money at it?

Jones: Not at all. The issue is not so much where to put the refugees. The issue is how to create a situation where refugees do not have to keep coming and where they can also possibly return to their own countries.

If you are going to put any money into anything, you should try and put money into reconstructing portions, now that there is some form of peace agreement at least temporarily it should be built up with the type of economic infrastructure in which the refugees themselves, the displaced peoples in Syria have a place to go within Syria and where there is an outlook for rebuilding the country.

You want to stem the flow not by building walls; you want to stem the flow by creating possibility of a future in those countries where they are fleeing from. So that the issue of giving out money or having financial resources, certainly Turkey measures have to be taken in the short-term in order to give these refugees a place to stay but there also has to be this long-term solution which requires what even the Germans, some of the German representatives have called the Marshall Plan for the Middle East to try and resolve that situation at its source. 

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