ANKARA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Agreements signed on Monday in Ankara between Turkey and the European Union (EU) fell short of expectations that Turks will get a visa-free travel to EU member states in specific time frame in exchange for admitting transition of illegal immigrants back to Turkey for repatriation.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom signed the agreement to launch negotiations on lifting visa requirements for Turks travelling to Europe.
Yet the agreement does not guarantee that the visa-waiver will happen eventually and there is no deadline set for that goal.
In exchange, Turkey has agreed to sign another accord called Readmission Agreement to allow EU member states to send illegal immigrants transited from Turkey back to Turkey.
"This agreement does not see an automatic dropping of visa requirements for Turkish citizens at the end of process," Idris Gursoy, political analyst and bureau chief for mass weekly news magazine Aksiyon, told Xinhua.
"It may very well leave Turkey with a heavy burden of tackling big number of illegal immigrants dropped by the EU in its own laps, " he added.
The opposition is also critical of agreements with main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Faruk Logoglu saying on Monday that the cost may be high for Turkey.
"This agreement brings very heavy obligations for Turkey. We are in a position of burdening ourselves with heavy obligations for something which is not certain," he said a press conference in parliament.
Turkish government officials defended agreements saying that they have assurances that both deals will go in parallel.
"Today is a milestone in Turkey-EU relations," said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a signing ceremony held in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
"Visa-free travel to Europe will begin in three to three-and-a- half years," he said.
"We can't predict how long this (visa liberalization) dialogue will last. We hope that both sides will take advantage of this process ahead of us," Malmstrom said.
Turkey pledges to work on strengthening border security and building detention centers for illegal migrants for three years. The EU has to reevaluate Turkey's performance before giving a green light to visa-free travel to Turkish citizens.
"We are talking about a visa exemption right, which is not even certain to be granted to Turkey, depending on the EU's own evaluation after three-and-a-half years," said Logoglu.
Turkish officials maintain however that they have a right to cancel the readmission agreement if it does not receive visa exemption at the end of process.
Egemen Bagis, Turkey's EU minister and chief negotiator, explained that Turkey has put its own reservations in the visa exemption roadmap. "It is a first in the EU's history," said Bagis.
Turkey has initialed the readmission agreement in 2011 but resisted from signing it for several concerns like cost-sharing for illegals, repatriation process and others.
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