Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated on Saturday his threat to open the border to Europe for Syrian refugees, noting that Ankara alone cannot afford another potential migration flow from Syria.
There is a “new migration threat” from the Syrian province of Idlib along the Turkish border, Erdogan said, urging the European Union to provide adequate financial assistance.
“Either you will share this burden or we will open the border,” the Turkish president warned, reiterating that the EU has not yet fully fulfilled its promise of financial assistance under the 2016 Ankara-Brussels agreement.
Turkey has spent $40 billion on Syrian refugees, Erdogan said, while stressing that the European Union’s assistance is “about 3 billion euros”.
“Should we worry about this? Let them worry this time, “he added.
Following similar threats by Erdogan on Thursday, the European Commission reacted recalling that the EU has already provided €5.6 billion in aid to Turkey and that the remaining 400 million (out of the agreed 6 billion in total) are due soon.
The Commission stressed, the EU and Turkey continue to be bound by the refugee agreement.
Speaking yesterday at a rally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Eskisehir, the Turkish president also announced that he will meet with US counterpart Donald Trump at this month’s United Nations General Assembly. military operations in northeast Syria, where Ankara plans to deploy one million Syrian refugees.
On Friday, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced that joint land patrols of Turkish military and US military forces in northeastern Syria are scheduled to begin on September 8th. A joint venture center provided for by the Turkish-American agreement to co-ordinate the creation of the “safety belt” has recently been put into operation.
Erdogan threatened to launch operations in northeastern Syria a week ago if Turkey does not gain control of this “security zone.
“There are differences between what has been said and what is being said,” he said on Saturday.today. “We have to solve this.”
Erdogan again referred to the plan to relocate 1 million refugees to northern Syria, a project that requires international support for the rebuilding of new homes. “We can handle the construction. You can give us financial support, ”he said.
According to the United Nations, more than 570,000 people have fled the province of Idlib since the start of a massive military attack by Syrian and Russian forces in April to recapture the province from jihadists.
The ‘Refugees’ trying to escape from Idlib into Turkey are not the Syrian people who live there and are thrilled to have their lands liberated. These so-alled refugees are the ISIS affiliated alphabet extremists who have been terrorising the Syrians in Idlib for 6 years. Why do we have to pretend that this is not so? Why all the euphemisms?