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Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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In the Syrian crisis, President Erdogan (66) wants to blackmail Western aid with new flows of refugees.
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Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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By Saturday evening there should have been over 30,000 people …
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Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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who were pushing through the barricades to the EU barricaded on the Greek side.
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Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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In the final round of the Syrian civil war, the Turk is sitting, if at all, only on the Russian reserve bench. This humiliation makes him even more dangerous.
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In the Syrian crisis, President Erdogan (66) wants to blackmail the help of the West with new flows of refugees. This time Ankara is serious: the buses are ready. Route maps to the Turkish-Greek border are distributed via Twitter. The smugglers smell good business.
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By Saturday evening there were said to have been over 30,000 people who were angry and desperate at the crossings to the EU that had been barricaded on the Greek side. Stones flew towards Greece. From there they responded with water cannons and even stun grenades. The government in Athens is determined not to give in. Even now she can no longer cope with the refugees on her islands off the Turkish west coast.
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Violence threatens to escalate
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As in 2015 with the large refugee route from Syria, violence at the weakest external border of the EU threatens to escalate again. The EU, said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday on Turkish television, “leaves us no choice. Europe has not kept its promises ».
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Erdogan lies shamelessly about the financial arrangements. The six billion euros pledged by Brussels to supply 3.5 million Syrians in Turkey have been almost entirely transferred. Berlin alone has provided an additional almost 140 million euros since December 2019. However, not at the free disposal of the Turkish government, but on a project basis.
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Friendship between men is crumbling
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However, Europe has failed politically. For months, the EU and its members stood by and watched the development in the Syrian province of Idlib. It took the refugee caravans to electrify diplomacy. In a communication to Ankara, the FDFA has called for moderation and respect for human rights.
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Too little too late! Because Erdogan gambled away in his geopolitical intrigue. His male friendship with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin (67) is crumbling. The Syrian ruler Bashir al-Assad (54), supported by Moscow, can no longer be intimidated so shortly before the final victory. And now the Russian Air Force has also killed 33 Turkish soldiers in an attack on the Syrian border province of Idlib. They were on the road in the last rebel stronghold with the Islamist militia Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is close to Al Qaeda.
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Ankara had long promised to disarm the HTS. This part of the Russian-Turkish de-escalation agreement was never honored. Maybe Erdogan couldn’t. Or he didn’t want to. Since the outbreak of the civil war almost nine years ago, he has repeatedly dealt with Sunni terrorists, even with the Islamic State terrorist militia.
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Ankara had come up with a perfidious plan for Idlib: first expel the Kurds from the province and the Syrian-Turkish border area further east, and then settle the empty spaces with the Arab-born refugees in Turkey. For this, Erdogan was even allowed to march into Syria with soldiers and heavy equipment.
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Erdogan warns Putin in a crisis phone call
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Now, it seems, the man in the Kremlin has had enough of the Turkish ruses. He plans to receive Erdogan for a crisis talk next week. But Putin never intended to share power over Syria with Erdogan. For him, the Turkish president was at most a temporary partner. In the final round of the Syrian civil war, the Turk is sitting, if at all, only on the Russian reserve bench.
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This humiliation makes Erdogan even more dangerous. On Saturday, his army destroyed a Syrian “chemical weapons warehouse”. The NATO state even threatens an open confrontation with Russia. “Don’t get the idea of trying to stop me,” Erdogan warned the Kremlin chief on the phone.
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However, a NATO crisis meeting brought verbal solidarity to Turkey, but no promise of military aid. The threats by the Turkish ambassador to the World Security Council were also ineffective.
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In his distress, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now squandering the last of his honor. With the defenseless refugees hostage, he wants to blackmail NATO and the EU into participating in his Syrian power poker.
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