For a third consecutive time in just a couple of days, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to flood the European Union with 5.5 million Syrian refugees.
“If they [EU] don’t help us in this struggle of ours, we will not be able to hinder the 3.5 million refugees in our country and the 2 million refugees who will come form Idlib,” Erdogan said during a rally of his supporters in Malatya, South-East Turkey, on Sunday.
The Turkish President wants to establish “safety zones” for one million refugees from Idlib and wants more money from the EU for this purpose. He is using the good old Turkish method of blackmail.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sunday that Turkey will act on its own if the establishment of a safe zone east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria does not commence by the end of September. pic.twitter.com/0WfMEkC2NL
— ANews (@anewscomtr) September 9, 2019
It is the third time within days, that Erdogan fires the same threats to Greece and Europe. He demands more money to keep Syrian refugees in Turkey. The EU and especially Greece are under pressure to avoid another migration wave like in 2015-2016. Greece has already seen a remarkable increase of new arrivals from Turkey during the summer months. The influx increased in the last ten days, with the coordinated arrival of 13 boats carrying 600 people of several nationalities. Over the weekend alone a total of 750 refugees and migrants arrived on the Greek islands of the eastern Aegean Sea from Friday to Sunday. According to latest official data, a total of 2,241 refugees and migrants arrive in Greece since September 1, 2019.
On Sunday, Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, sent to Turkey the message that “Mr Erdogan must understand that he cannot threaten Greece and Europe. A discussion can take place, but not with threats and bulling,” he said during a press conference.
Referring to the EU-Turkey agreement of 2016, Mitsotakis said that the agreement will continue to be implemented. He stressed that the government “will change the asylum procedure, will accelerate it without discounts on human rights and readmission to Turkey will be made specified in the agreement.”
Erodagan is deaf to any messages, anyway, and his Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, announced to open a Turkish consulate in the ghost city of Famagusta in the occupied North of Cyprus, although there is no need for such a diplomatic mission
