Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the deal with the EU a “milestone” and a new era in Tureky-EU relations.

“We are not coming to become a burden, but to help with it. The visa requirements should have been removed long ago. The fact that they haven’t been removed yet has only harmed the European Union,” Erdogan said.

“Turkey is no longer a country that people escaped from, but one that people returned to,” he added.