Merkel open to 'safe country' status for Turkey

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that Turkey deserved to be listed as a "safe country of origin", despite concerns over the situation of its Kurdish minority.

 In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily before she travels to Ankara on Sunday, Merkel noted that Turkey was the only EU membership candidate lacking that status.

 "Of course we appreciate that there are concerns over the respect for human rights or the situation of the Kurdish people, but I think that it is wrong to withhold this status from Turkey," said Merkel in an interview to be published in full Saturday.

 Granting 'safe origin' status to a country makes it tougher for its citizens to seek asylum elsewhere.

 The issue is particularly sensitive in Germany, which has a significant population of Turkish origin and which receives a fair number of Kurds seeking protection.

 It is being debated at a time of high tensions in Turkey, where a double suicide bombing on a peace rally in Ankara last Saturday has raised a feud between the government and Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party HDP to a new level.

 It was the third bombing of a Kurdish-linked political gathering in recent months, after a July 20 strike on activists in the border town of Suruc killed 34 people, and an attack on an HDP rally in Diyarbakir on June 5 killed four.

 The HDP has accused the government of complicity, or at least negligence, over all the attacks.

 But with Turkey now being the main port of entry to Europe for tens of thousands of refugees, European leaders have admitted that without Ankara on board, they won't be able to stem the record influx.

 Ahead of last Thursday's EU summit, Merkel said: "We cannot organise or stem the refugee movements without working with Turkey."