EU Parliament president praises Turkey's help to Syrian refugees

Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan concluded his one-day visit to Brussels Tuesday evening by meeting the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, and political leaders of the European Parliament. Speaking at a press conference, Schulz said they talked about expectations of Turkey as an EU candidate country and raised questions about rule of law, independence of judiciary in Turkey and also discussed the situation in Syria. "Turkey is a key partner of the EU," stressed Schulz and noted that Turkey has accommodated 700,000 Syrian refugees and praised the way Turkey treated the Syrian refuges "as a model. "The humanitarian achievement of Turkey in this respect is making considerable contribution to bringing peace in the region," he said. On his part, Erdogan described his meetings in the European Parliament as "very lively and positive," and said he tried to correct some of the disinformation about Turkey regarding its internal problems. They also Talked about Egypt and Cyprus, he said. On Syria, Erdogan said "we want to see result of the Geneva II conference. We are trying to get results from Geneva II particulalry after the publication of the photographs (about the killing of prisoners in Syria). "I think Geneva II is going to be different. Russia, Iran and China can no longer refuse to see what is going on. If there is no result then that will be the responsibility of those who participate in the conference," he said. He noted that EU altogether has accepted only 60,000 Syrian refugees.