The Turkish president wants to pay the price for the attacks on his army in Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Saturday to keep the doors of Europe open to migrants, seeking Western support against the Syrian regime he promised to “charge the price” of his attacks on the Turkish military.
On the border between Turkey and Greece where thousands of people wanting to go to the European Union flocked, the situation was tense, with scuffles between Greek police firing tear gas canisters and migrants throwing stones.
Thousands of migrants, including women and children, spent the night at the border, gathering around makeshift braziers near the Pazarkule border post (Kastanies, Greek side).
Despite the strong winds, others chose to reach Greece by the islands in the Aegean Sea, where 180 people arrived between Friday and Saturday morning, according to Athens.
On Saturday, an inflatable boat carrying Gambians and Congolese ran aground on the rocky shore at Lesbos.
Shaken by the crossing and reciting prayers, the 27 survivors, including a pregnant woman, were taken in by volunteers.
“We are not going to close the doors”, Erdogan said on Saturday that 18,000 migrants had already crossed over to go to the EU since Friday, a figure that seems overstated compared to what AFP journalists found.
Faced with these scenes that awaken the specter of the serious migration crisis that Europe was facing in 2015, Greece and Bulgaria – also neighboring Turkey – have closed their border.
Athens, which has stepped up border patrols, said on Saturday it prevented 4,000 migrants from entering “illegally” on Greek territory.
Turkey, which in 2016 signed a pact with Brussels to reduce the flow of migrants, especially to Greece, opened its borders on Friday to pressure the EU to get more support in Syria.
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