Turkey to send troops to Greek border as tensions rise over migrants

TURKEY IS to deploy special forces along its land border with Greece to prevent Greek authorities from pushing back migrants trying to cross into Europe.

Turkey last week declared its previously guarded gateways to

Europe open and thousands of migrants and refugees have tried to cross into Greece.

Greek police fired tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon at them. Greek authorities say Turkish police have also fired tear gas at them in an effort to disperse border guards. Turkey says

Greek authorities were also firing live ammunition at the migrants.

The country’s interior minister Suleyman Soylu said Turkey would make a case in the European Court of Human Rights for a migrant it says was shot dead by Greek authorities on the border. The Greek government has denied any such incident occurred. Mr Soylu said Turkey would deploy 1,000 special forces along its land border to prevent Greek authorities from pushing back those attempting to cross. Mr Soylu said Greece had tried to push back around 4,900 migrants in violation of international conventions. The minister asserted that more than 130,000 migrants had crossed into Greece since February 27. Greek authorities said they had thwarted 34,778 attempts to cross the border, and 244 people had been arrested.

Turkey’s decision to open its borders came amid a Russiabacked

Syrian government offensive into Syria’s Idlib province, where Turkish troops are fighting. The offensive has killed dozens of Turkish troops and sent nearly a million Syrian civilians toward Turkey’s sealed border.

Turkey houses more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees.