The number of migrants trying to cross from Turkey to Greece could soon swell significantly, a top Ankara official warned yesterday, even as the European Union insisted that any aid for refugees in Turkey hinged on fewer arrivals, not more.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said more than 143,000 migrants have crossed from Turkey into Greece, though reporters’ observations in northeastern Greece have said the figure seemed exaggerated.
Greece has said it is not allowing any entries.
“This is just the beginning,” Soylu said. “You should watch what will happen next. What has happened so far is nothing,”
“[Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos] Mitsotakis has no capacity to hold the border [gates],” he said.
Mitsotakis told CNN late on Friday that the 2016 deal struck by the EU and Turkey to curb the inflow of migrants “is now dead” and blamed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the deal’s collapse.
“We categorically reject Prime Minister Mitsotakis’ allegations,” Erdogan’s communications director Fahrettin Altun said in a written response to CNN.
According to Altun, the EU has failed to keep its promises, and Ankara had no option but to divert its focus away from stopping the refugee flow to Europe to “a potential influx” from Syria’s Idlib.
Soylu said more migrants will be able to move towards the border as the weather becomes warmer and as Turkey increases security measures to counter Greek border pushbacks.
Ankara has accused the Greeks of using excessive, even deadly force against migrants on the land border, while Greek media reported that Turkish soldiers violently pushed migrants towards the border.
Videos released by Greek state broadcaster ERT also showed smoke bombs and tear gas fired by the Turkish side towards Greece.
Mitsotakis accused Erdogan’s government of creating the present crisis on the Greek-Turkish border by encouraging and helping migrants and refugees cross into Europe.
Turkey stopped blocking migrants from its land and maritime border with Greece a week ago, saying it could not handle a new influx from Syria’s latest battleground of Idlib.
Since then, beefed-up Greek security forces have clashed daily with people trying to cross the border and continue on to wealthy European countries.
The conservative Mitsotakis, in power since July, stressed “Europe is not going to blackmailed” over Turkey’s burden of hosting millions of Syrian refugees.
Meanwhile, Turkish and German media reported that Erdogan is due to travel to Brussels tomorrow to discuss a reset of relations between the European Union and Turkey.
German daily Die Welt reported that European Council President Charles Michel initiated the meeting during his visit to Ankara this week, according to diplomatic sources in Brussels.
The EU’s Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn told Die Welt that Ankara must first end its “blackmailing policies” of threatening to send more migrants to Europe before it can count on further aid.
Tensions on the Greek-Turkish border meanwhile spread to the Aegean Sea.
Athens media ran a video showing a Turkish coastguard ship manoeuvring dangerously near a Greek vessel on Friday morning.
The Greek islands, many close to Turkey’s coast, are one of the main gateways for migrants trying to reach Europe.
International and local human rights and aid organisations criticised Athens for its new, tough stance on migrants, including its one-month suspension of the asylum procedure.
Yesterday Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said that starting March 15, Greece will also reduce its assistance to refugees applying for asylum, given its already-overcrowded camps.
Previously, Mitsotakis had dismissed accusations about Greek treatment of migrants and refugees, pointing out that Greece has accepted “hundreds of thousands” of them in recent years.
Soylu retorted: “Mitsotakis’ country has 115,000 foreigners in total.
“We have 4mn refugees”, adding that people who complain should consider that first.
A migrant runs as another one takes cover behind a trash container as Greek police personnel use water cannons to stop them from breaching fences in the Turkey-Greece border province of Edirne.
