EU and Turkey reach deal on stemming Europe-bound migration for cash, EU membership talks

In Brussels on Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and European leaders struck a deal in which the European Union will pay Turkey up to 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) to help reduce the flow of migrants to Europe. The EU says the money is intended to raise the quality of life for the 2.2 million Syrians currently in Turkey, providing them an incentive to stay, and it will be paid out as Turkey meets certain benchmarks. Most of the 720,000 migrants who have entered Europe through Greece this year from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere came through Turkey, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Turkey also negotiated a new round of talks on joining the 28-member union, and visa-free travel to and within the EU by October 2016 if Ankara meets certain conditions. "Today is a historic day in our accession process to the EU," Davutoglu said at the beginning of the talks. "I am grateful to all European leaders for this new beginning." European Union leaders said the agreement is first and foremost about migration. "As Turkey is making an effort to take in refugees — who will not come to Europe — it's reasonable that Turkey receive help from Europe to accommodate those refugees," French President Francois Hollande told reporters. Reuters has more on the deal in the video below:

Many European Union leaders are uncomfortable with the anti-secular and authoritarian bent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says BBC Istanbul correspondent Mark Lowen. After the editor of Turkey's main center-left newspaper, arrested last week apparently for publishing an article Erdogan disliked, urged EU leaders to keep human rights in Turkey a priority, European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker insisted the migrant pact "would not lead to a situation where we forget about the main differences and divergences we have with Turkey — human rights and freedom of the press."

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