Turkey’s ties with the European Union appeared to be set on a better course recently after having remained largely dormant over the past few years. This was not due, however, to a decision by Ankara to introduce the democratic reforms necessary for its membership bid in the EU. The refugee crisis forced Europe into cooperating with Ankara, even though Turkey’s democracy continues to deteriorate under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The agreement signed in Brussels between Turkey and the EU on March 18 foresees the return to Turkey of all illegal migrants who have continued to cross into Greece since March 20. For every illegal migrant returned, Turkey will send a refugee to Europe through legal channels. Europe will also extend a total of 6 billion euros to Turkey by 2018 to cope with the refugee crisis.

The agreement also proposes that Turkey’s EU membership process be re-energized and that visa-free travel in Europe be granted for Turks by the end of June 2016, once Ankara has fulfilled 72 criteria set down for this purpose.

The visa issue, however, may turn out yet to be the barrier that the whole agreement founders on. The agreement was not widely welcomed in Europe anyway, where there were objections to it on humanitarian grounds, as many argued it overlooked the rights of refugees enshrined in international agreements.