Below is an article posted by The Telegraph 

Haggling in a Turkish bazaar is not an experience most Westerners enjoy at the best of times. But it becomes especially unpleasant when you discover that, having agreed a price, you then become a victim of blatant extortion. That is certainly how EU leaders must be feeling after their bruising encounter with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to find a workable solution to the refugee crisis that is threatening mainland Europe.

Writing on these pages on Tuesday, William Hague, our former foreign secretary, revealed the high regard in which he held Mr Davutoglu during his four-year tenure at King Charles Street. And it is easy to understand why the Turkish politician became the object of Mr Hague’s admiration when you look at the way he has run rings around his EU opposite numbers.

Not so long ago it was the case that, in terms of the EU’s relations with Turkey, it was Brussels that held all the trump cards. Numerous initiatives undertaken by Ankara to join the EU were hindered by the demands of Brussels – from resolving the long-standing dispute over Cyprus to improving Turkey’s woeful human rights record.

Now, thanks to the migration crisis, the tables have turned dramatically, so that it is Ankara, not Brussels, that finds itself holding all the aces, a drastic change in circumstance the Turks are determined to exploit for their own advantage.

The most graphic illustration of Turkey’s new assertiveness emerged in Brussels in the early hours of Monday morning after Mr Davutoglu had invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel to dinner at the Turkish Embassy, ostensibly to discuss the terms of the refugee deal negotiated over several weeks by EU President Donald Tusk. Instead Turkey’s prime minister presented her with a completely new set of demands that read more like a ransom note than a bargaining position.

In return for agreeing to the repatriation of migrants being shipped to Greece by Turkish people-smuggling gangs – the so-called “one in, one out” deal – Turkey is demanding an extra three billion euros added to the three billion euros the EU has already pledged. In addition, Ankara wants full-scale visa liberalisation for Turkish citizens visiting the EU by June, an acceleration of Turkey’s application for EU membership and a pledge to resettle in Europe many of the Syrian refugees Turkey agrees to take in.

Such is the EU’s desperation to fix the migrant crisis that it now has little option other than to accede to Ankara’s demands. But if the Turks think that by indulging in blackmail this will somehow help to improve their relations with Europe, they should think again.

For a start, the suggestion that Turkey still remains interested in joining the EU can only be described as a bad joke. Just a few days before Mr Davutoglu’s démarche to Mrs Merkel in Brussels, Turkish riot police were busy raiding the offices of Turkey’s main anti-government newspaper, Zaman, arresting its senior journalists and firing tear gas at demonstrators. This is not the conduct of a country that is serious about joining an organisation like the EU, where the protection of all human rights – including press freedom – is pursued with obsessive zeal.

Moreover, the increasingly pro-Islamist agenda being pursued by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has placed him on a far more worrying collision course with his European neighbours.

Mr Erdogan likes to claim that, with an estimated three million Syrian refugees already seeking sanctuary in Turkey, his country cannot cope with the influx. But he is conveniently overlooking the fact that Turkey would not be in this position if its government had prevented jihadists from freely crossing its borders to travel to the war zones in Syria and Iraq. Indeed, it has been suggested that Ankara, which supports the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has links with Islamic State (Isil) militants fighting across the border in Syria.

Furthermore, when British counter-terrorism officials warn, as they did earlier this week, that Britain today finds itself at risk from “enormous and spectacular” terrorist attacks, this is in large part due to Turkey’s disinclination to monitor the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees crossing its border. Many of the returning jihadists who now pose a threat to our security have made their way to the UK courtesy of Turkey’s unpoliced migrant routes.

If Turkey were really serious about forging a closer relationship with Europe, then it would be more proactive in monitoring those from Isil and other Islamist-inspired terror groups that seek to do us harm.
For the moment the EU might be desperate to keep the Turks onside as it tackles the worst migration crisis in living memory. But in the long term we should take the view that, so long as Turkey remains under its present leadership, it would be foolhardy to regard her as an ally in whom we can place our trust.