Austria’s Chancellor says Erodogan’s opening of the borders is a direct attack on the
Austria’s Chancellor says Erodogan’s opening of the borders is a direct attack on the EU
By Eva Janssen 4 March 2020
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Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz recently said that Turkish regime leader Recep Erdogan’s move to open the borders for migrants to head westward to Europe was a direct assault on the EU bloc, and that Austria wouldn’t be taking in any more migrants.
Kurz’s statements have been echoed by his interior minister, Karl Nehammer, who said over the weekend that unlike 2015, “there will be no waiving them [migrants]through at the border,” Reuters news agency reports.
During a joint press conference with his Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler of the Green party and his interior minister, Kurz said that the recent build-up of migrants at the Greek-Turkish border was “only the beginning”.
Kurz described the situation at the Turkish-Greek border as an “organized rush” that would act as the first real test for the EU border security since the 2015 migrant crisis.
Despite Vice-Chancellor Kogler suggesting that Austria could accept some women and children who are stuck between the Greek-Turkish border, interior minister Nehammer reiterated that Austria would not be welcoming any new asylum seekers.
“We will not accept them, there is no point in coming,” Nehammer said after pointing out that Austria had already taken in a large portion migrants in 2015.
Kurz, Kogler, and Nehammer all agreed that the European has to stand up to Erdogan’s “attempt at blackmail”. The Chancellor stated that a repeat of 2015 must be prevented “at all costs”, and called for unity within the EU bloc to put pressure on Turkey.
As Voice of Europe has reported on, Erdogan, since ‘opening the gates’, has claimed that millions of migrants are headed westward toward Europe.
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