Turkey, Pressing E.U. for Help in Syria, Threatens to Open Borders to Refugees – The New York Times

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Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said there were “significant numbers” of people making their way to the northern land border with Turkey but warned that his country’s doors were closed.

“Significant numbers of migrants and refugees have gathered in large groups at the Greek-Turkish land border and have attempted to enter the country illegally,” he wrote on Twitter. “I want to be clear: no illegal entries into Greece will be tolerated.”

“Greece does not bear any responsibility for the tragic events in Syria and will not suffer the consequences of decisions taken by others,” he added.

Turkey has shown no sign of opening its southern border with Syria, where several hundred thousand Syrians are sheltering from attacks by the Assad government. Nor has it rescinded visa restrictions for Syrians living in Lebanon and Jordan.

A large proportion of the refugee influx to Europe in 2015 were Syrians who had come directly from Syria — or who had traveled by plane into Turkey from Jordan and Lebanon.

After the mass movement of asylum seekers in 2015, the European Union had struck a deal with Ankara, which saw it funding international and local organizations to help refugees in Turkey with 6.6 billion euros ($7.2 billion). The deal also foresaw that Syrians could be returned to Turkey from Greek islands, but in practice, the Greek government has not made much use of this provision.

“There is no official announcement from the Turkish side about any change to their asylum-seeker, refugee or migrant policy,” said Peter Stano, a spokesman from the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/world/europe/turkey-greece-europe-migrants-refugees.html

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