Turkey to ‘open the gates’ and allow millions of migrants unrestricted passage into E

Turkey to ‘open the gates’ and allow millions of migrants unrestricted passage into Europe


By Arthur Lyons 28 February 2020
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The Turkish government on Thursday said that it would open its border with Syria and permit any and all migrants from the Middle East to pass through to reach Europe.
The senior Turkish official said that Erdogan’s government has decided to no longer allocate resources to stopping Syrian migrants from reaching Europe by land or sea, Reuters reports.
According to the senior official’s announcement, Turkish police, coast guard, and border security officials have been ordered to stand down.

The move, which Recep Erdogan has been threatening to take for a long time now, comes allegedly due to imminent wave of nearly 1 million Syrian migrants who’ve been displaced from Idlib.
Concerning the announcement, Ragio Soylu, a prominent Turkish journalist wrote on Twitter: “Land and sea crossings to Europe would be free to pass for the NEXT 72 HOURS and Turkey will open the borders immediately.”
Despite having made a deal with the European Union in 2016 to stop the flow of migrants from the Middle East into Europe, Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan and his top official have repeatedly threatened to “open the gates” and “flood” Europe with migrants.
In August of last year, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said, “We are facing the biggest wave of migration in history. If we open the floodgates, no European government will be able to survive for more than six months. We advise them not to try our patience.”
Weeks later, Turkish President Recep Erdogan threatened Europe again, saying: “Give us logistical support and we can go build housing at 30 km (20 miles) depth in northern Syria. This way, we can provide them with humanitarian living conditions.”
“This either happens or otherwise we will have to open the gates.”
Turkey is currently hosting close to 3.6 million Syrian ‘refugees,’ many of whom have arrived since the height of the migrant crisis in 2016. If he were to let them all head to Europe unimpeded, it would make the 2015-2016 migrant crisis look like a walk in the park.
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https://voiceofeurope.com/2020/02/tu...OYIn_CPNkyl3ZY

THIS IS WAR...TREAT IT AT SUCH AND GET THE MILITARY SHIPS IN THE WATER NOW.

STOP THEM AT ALL COSTS.

THEY WILL DESTROY OUR ECONOMY, OUR NEIGHBORHOODS, BRINGING MANY DISEASES, VIOLENCE, RAPE AND CRIME!

THIS IS NOT FUNNY!!!

NO MORE EXTORTION MONEY. SEND THESE PEOPLE BACK HOME!

FEBRUARY 29, 2020 / 2:26 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

Greece pushes back migrants on Turkish border 'onslaught'

Lefteris Papadimas

KASTANIES, Greece (Reuters) - Greek police fired teargas to push back hundreds of migrants gathered on its border with Turkey on Saturday, as a crisis over Syria shifted onto the European Union’s doorstep.

Migrants are seen during clashes with Greek police, at the Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing with Greece's Kastanies, in Edirne, Turkey, February 29, 2020. REUTERS/Huseyin Aldemir


Greece, which has tense relations with its neighbor Turkey at the best of times and was a primary gateway for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, described the situation an “onslaught” and said it would keep migrants out.

“Greece yesterday faced an organized, mass and illegal attempt to violate its borders and it withstood this attempt,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas told reporters.

“The government will do whatever it takes to protect its borders,” adding that police at the borders would be reinforced.

Ankara said on Thursday it will no longer contain hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers after an air strike on war-ravaged Idlib in Syria killed 33 Turkish soldiers.

Almost immediately, convoys of people appeared heading towards the Greek land and sea borders.

“This has nothing to do with Idlib,” Petsas said, adding that in the past 24 hours Greek authorities had prevented attempts by 4,000 people to cross the border.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that some 18,000 migrants had crossed borders from Turkey into Europe. Speaking in Istanbul, he did not immediately provide evidence for the number, but said it would rise.

Bulgaria, which also shares a border with Turkey, said it had seen no migrant inflows.

“There is nothing different on our border from what we have seen a year, or two or three years ago,” Prime Minister Poyko Borissov told reporters.

‘TITANIC EFFORT’

A Reuters witness said there were about 500 people in the buffer zone between the Greek and Turkish border posts, and beyond that on the Turkish side, at the Pazarkule border gate, hundreds more.

Overnight, demonstrators hurled flaming pieces of wood at police, amateur footage filmed by a policeman on the scene, which was seen by Reuters, showed. Police fired teargas to keep people back.

An estimated 3,000 people had gathered on the Turkish side of the border at Kastanies, a Greek government official said. Kastanies is just over 900 km (550 miles) north-east of Athens.

“We are making a titanic effort to keep our borders closed to such migration flows,” Panagiotis Harelas, head of border guards in the area, told reporters, showing empty gas cannisters which were hurled from the Turkish side. They had Turkish writing on them.

Nearly a million refugees and migrants crossed from Turkey to Greece’s islands in 2015, setting off a crisis over immigration in Europe, but that route all but closed after the European Union and Ankara agreed to stop the flow in March 2016.

RIVER BORDER

Greece shares a long river border with Turkey, and is a known permeable route for asylum seekers.

Reuters video showed tens of people at a time climbing, and some throwing their bags over a 3-metre (10-foot) fence covered all over with barbed wire along the Greek border in Turkey’s western Edirne province.

A group of Afghans with young children waded across fast-moving waters of the Evros river and took refuge in a small chapel. They crossed into Greece on Friday morning.

“Today is good” said Shir Agha, 30 in broken English. “Before, Erdogan people, police problem,” he said. Their shoes were caked in mud. It had rained heavily the night before, and by early morning, temperatures were close to freezing.

Greece had already said on Thursday it would tighten border controls to prevent coronavirus reaching its Aegean islands, where thousands of migrants are living in poor conditions.

Slideshow (9 Images)

A Syrian man, who did not give his name, said they had been in the border area for two days and were in need of food.

“We’ve been here for two days, We have no food, look at these kids,” he said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...-idUSKBN20N0GE

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