Greece’s Migration Minister has denied Turkey’s allegations that 12 migrants froze to death in the land border between the two countries following deadly pushback by Greek border guards. Among the dead were reportedly also children.
Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu had posted on Twitter that 12 migrants froze to death and were found near the Ipsala border crossing between Turkey and Greece “without shoes and stripped of their clothes.”
The minister did not provide further details, but shared blurred photographs of eight of the recovered bodies, including three in shorts and T-shirts.
📆 02.02.2022
📍 Greece Ipsala Border12 of the 22 migrants pushed back by Greek Border Units, stripped off from their clothes and shoes have frozen to death.
EU is remediless, weak and void of humane feelings.
Greek border units thug against victims, tolerant towards FETO pic.twitter.com/EP1TOqsGCB
— Süleyman Soylu (@suleymansoylu) February 2, 2022
Soylu accused Greek border guards of pushing the migrants, 22 in total, back over the frontier. He called the border guards “thugs” and the EU “helpless,weak and inhumane,” news agency associated press reported.
According to AP, the governor’s office for Edirne province, near the land border with Greece, said the deceased included a migrant who died in a hospital after being rescued by Turkish authorities.
Greek Migration Minister Notis mitarakis denied the Turkish allegations.
The deaths of 12 migrants on the Turkish border near Ipsala is a tragedy. Any suggestion that they were pushed back into Turkey is patently false. pic.twitter.com/X2YoROekHg
— Νότης Μηταράκης – Notis Mitarachi (@nmitarakis) February 2, 2022
They never made it as far as the border. Rather than pushing out unfounded claims Turkey needs to live up to its obligations by preventing these dangerous journeys at source.https://t.co/2zUmf3GfdP
— Νότης Μηταράκης – Notis Mitarachi (@nmitarakis) February 2, 2022
Turkey has been often accusing Greece of illegal pushback of migrants and asylum-seekers, Greece has been always denied such allegations.
Oh my god this is so horrible. Shame on us all.
Do not go so hard on yourself let alone extend it onto others. It is not your fault as much as your Turkish controlled media under the autocrat Erdogan.
Isil Sariyuce and Joshua Berlinger (a Turk and a German I suspect) on CNN news reported the same nonsense adding that the UN, European Counsel, had “”credible reports” ” of previous instances at sea and that the Greek ministry did not respond to CNN about this recently.
Turkish trolls and their false propaganda have hit not only Greek media but CNN overseas too.
This is a traditional Turkish propaganda and provocation, false claims- like when they bombed their own mosques claiming that the Greeks did it to elicit world sympathy.