CE Secretary General to visit Turkey

/By Azernews/

By Gunay Hasanova 

Turkey's ongoing cleansing within the state and government structures is expected to be one of the issues to be discussed at a meeting of the CE Secretary General with the Turkish high ranking officials.  

Thorbjorn Jagland is scheduled to hold official meetings as part of his upcoming visit to Turkey on August 3, Turkish TV channel NTV reported on Monday.

He plans to mull cleansing of state and government structures of Turkey from Gulen supporters, whom Ankara blames in staging a failed coup attempt on July 16.

Earlier, Turkish authorities said that cleansing in the state structures of the country will continue.

Another topic of discussion will be application of visa-free regime of the EU for Turkey.

The European Commission plans to publish in September a regular report on Turkey's fulfillment of the conditions for the introduction of visa-free regime, RIA Novosti reported.

"The next report on the progress in the implementation of EU-Turkey commitments, including the terms of the progress in the dialogue on visa liberalization, is expected to be published in September," said a source, who requested anonymity, RIA Novosti reports.

Earlier, a representative of the European Commission said that timing the abolition of visas for Turkish citizens depends on the performance of the Turkish side regarding the remaining conditions of visa liberalization plan and subsequent decisions of the European Parliament and the Council in this regard.

In turn, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned the EU that Turkey will have to withdraw from the implementation of the migrants return program unless the visa facilitation occurs.

The Heads of State and the EU Member States' governments agreed with Turkey upon a joint plan to combat the migration crisis in mid-March. The program is focusing on the return of illegal immigrants arriving from Greece to the territory of Turkey and accepting legal Syrian refugees in Turkey by the EU according to the principle of "one for one".

Turkey has long waited for its EU membership, while each application to accede to the European Union was frustrating for the government. Turkey, holding a status of an associate member at the Economic Community -- the predecessor of the EU since 1963 -- made an official application for entry on April 14, 1987.

The membership bid has become a major controversy of the ongoing enlargement of the European Union