The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said at least 18,000 migrants have crossed Turkish borders into Europe after the Islamic nation “opened the doors” for them to travel through the country.
Mr Erdogan also claimed the numbers are expected to rise and hit 25,000 to 30,000 in the coming day, he added that Turkey could no longer cope with the number of people fleeing the Syrian civil war.
Greece says it has blocked thousands of migrants from entering “illegally” from Turkey and is ramping up security at the border, Greek authorities were forced to fire tear gas to attempt to disperse the crowds.
According to reports, Turkey’s decision followed a deadly attack on Turkish troops by Syrian government forces in northern Syria this week.
At least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in a bombardment in Idlib, the last Syrian province where Syrian rebel groups hold significant territory.
The Turkish military continued retaliatory strikes on Saturday, killing 26 Syrian government troops with drone strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.
Syria is backed by the Russia Federation has been trying to retake Idlib from jihadist groups and Turkish-backed rebel factions.
As of current, Turkey is hosting over 3.7million Syrian refugees, as well as many migrants from other nations such as Afghanistan. Turkey had previously stopped migrants from leaving for European under an aid-linked deal with the European Union, however, President Erdogan accused the EU of breaking promises.
President Erdogan said in Istanbul on Saturday: “We said months ago that if it goes on like this, we will have to open the doors. They did not believe us, but we opened the doors yesterday,
“We will not close these doors in the coming period and this will continue. Why? The European Union needs to keep its promises. We don’t have to take care of this many refugees, to feed them.”
He said that some 18,000 refugees had “pressed on the gates and crossed” into Europe by Saturday morning. although did not provide any evidence of these numbers.
Brussels has not given full financial aid to Turkey that was agreed in the 2018 Turkey-EU refugee deal, the President claimed.
The Greek authorities said they have averted over 4,000 illegal attempts to cross into the country, there were further clashes between migrants and Greek police on Saturday.
“The (Greek) government will do whatever it takes to protect its borders,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas told reporters.
The Turkish President requested that Russian President Vladimir Putin, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stand aside and let Turkey “do what is necessary” with the Syrian government by itself.
The Russian Federation and Turkey are backing opposing sides of the conflict with the Russians taking the side of the Syrian government forces and Turkey backing and supporting some rebel groups in the nation.
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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