EU alleges migrant ‘attack’ Turkey/Greece
Clashes between Greek riot police and migrants attempting to cross the land border from Turkey erupted anew yesterday as European Union foreign ministers criticised Turkey for using migrants’ desperation ‘‘for political purposes’’.
Greek riot police used tear gas and water cannon to drive back people trying to cross the land border with Turkey. Turkish police fired volleys of tear gas back towards Greece in an ongoing standoff between Ankara and the EU over who should care for migrants and refugees.
Similar clashes erupted later, and fires were burning on the Turkish side of the border, which Greek officials said were lit by migrants.
Thousands of refugees and other migrants have been trying to get into EU member Greece in the past week, after Turkey declared that its previously guarded borders with Europe were open.
Following months of threats, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that his country, which already houses more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees, would no longer be Europe’s gatekeeper. The move has alarmed EU countries, which are still enduring the political fallout from a wave of mass migration five years ago.
Greek authorities said they had thwarted more than 38,000 attempted border crossings in the past week and arrested 268 people, mostly Afghans. Only 4 per cent of those arrested were Syrians.
Hundreds of people have also headed to Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast.
Erdogan has demanded that Europe should shoulder more of the burden of caring for refugees. But the EU insists that it is abiding by a 2016 deal in which it gave Turkey billions of euros in refugee aid in return for keeping refugees on its soil.
Erdogan spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel by phone yesterday, telling her that the Turkey-EU migration deal was no longer working and needed to be revised, his office said.
EU foreign ministers, meanwhile, met in Zagreb, Croatia to discuss the Greece-Turkey border situation and events in Syria, where Turkish troops are fighting. Erdogan has cited a potential new wave of refugees from Syria as part of his reasons for opening the border.
The ministers said the EU ‘‘strongly rejects Turkey’s use of migratory pressure for political purposes’’. They said the EU was determined to protect its external borders.
The EU’s border agency, Frontex, said it would deploy 100 more guards to the Greek land border. It already has 509 officers in the country. It will also provide two more boats, three aircraft, one helicopter and three more thermal imaging vans to help police Greece’s land and sea borders.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ministers had urged Turkey to stop falsely telling migrants that the EU border was open.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz accused Turkey of carrying out an ‘‘organised attack on Greece’’.
The push to the Greek border, which began last week, has appeared organised by someone, with buses, minibuses and cars ferrying people from Istanbul.
Mohammad Omid, an Afghan who has been at the border for five days with his wife, said Turkish police told him to go there.
‘‘We don’t know what is happening,’’ he said in the border town of Edirne. ‘‘We are like a ball to them. Everyone passes us to this side and the other side. I don’t know what will happen to us.’’
Greece has described the situation as a threat to its national security. It has suspended asylum applications for a month and said it will deport new arrivals without registering them.
Many migrants have reported crossing into Greece, being beaten by Greek authorities and summarily forced back into Turkey.
Turkey said it was deploying 1000 special operations police to prevent Greek authorities from sending back those who managed to cross.
Erdogan signalled that there would be no change in Turkey’s policy. ‘‘We don’t have time to discuss with Greece whether the gates which we opened are now closed. That business is over,’’ Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted him as saying. ‘‘Our gates are open. The refugees will go as far as they can. We are not forcing them to leave.’’
‘‘The refugees will go as far as they can. We are not forcing them to leave.’’ Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan