German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated the requirements for the EU to lift the visa travel restrictions on Turkish citizens in an interview to RTL media network. ‘The 72 prerequisites that have to be upheld in order for Turks not to need visas to travel to Europe have not yet been fulfilled, and of course we shall insist that the agreements be honoured on our part but also on the part of Turkey’, Merkel said. Merkel stated that talks with the European Commission were under way on the matter, adding that time was running out. ‘We will work intensively and in ant case the European Parliament will also have to decide on the matter. We shall all decide on whether all 72 requirements have been met’, said Merkel. The German Chancellor flatly denied reports that the German government had distanced itself from a resolution passed in the German parliament that recognised the Armenian genocide by Turkey.  ‘The German government did not distance its left from the resolution. I would like to clearly deny that rumour’, Merkel pointed out.