Erdogan wants to leave the border open – violence between refugees and the police
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As of: 2:28 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
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Here thousands of refugees want to cross the border
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Greek police and thousands of refugees have fought violently in Erdine on the Greek-Turkish border. People tried to cross the border.
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Shortly after Turkish President Erdogan announced that refugees would no longer be stopped at the EU border, violence broke out there. “We will not close our gates to refugees,” said Erdogan.
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GGreek police officers and thousands of refugees fought violently on Saturday at the Greek-Turkish border, according to the AFP news agency. The agency cites a photographer who said the police used tear gas against the refugees who had gathered by the thousands at the Pazarkule border crossing in the western Turkish province of Edirne. Some of them threw stones at the officers.
Violence broke out after Turkey announced that it would no longer prevent refugees who wanted to enter the EU from crossing the border. Ankara responded to the deaths of 33 Turkish soldiers in airstrikes in the Syrian province of Idlib.
A senior Turkish government official said on Friday that Turkey would no longer close its borders to refugees “who want to go to Europe”.
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Greece says it has warded off an organized, massive and illegal border violation by migrants from Turkey. “Over 4,000 illegal border crossings have been averted,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas reported on Greek state television ERT on Saturday after a crisis session chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
A Greek police officer told the AP news agency that migrants had tried to make their way across the roughly 200 km long land border with Turkey. Groups were constantly rejected. Other migrants took the boat from the Turkish coast to the Greek Aegean Islands. Bulgaria has also increased security measures on the border with Turkey.
“A situation like 2015 must never be repeated”
In view of the new developments in the migration crisis, Austria also wants to strengthen border protection if necessary. “If the protection of the EU’s external border is unsuccessful, Austria will protect its borders. A situation like 2015 must never happen again, ”said Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) on Saturday.
On Friday evening, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had a phone call with Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu via Twitter announced that the EU had received an “assurance” from Turkey that Ankara would abide by its part of the refugee pact between the EU and Turkey.
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A migrant seeks cover during a clash with the Greek police at the Pazarkule Turkish-Greek border crossing
Source: REUTERS
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On Saturday, however, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Istanbul that despite the agreements with the EU, he wanted to let refugees cross the borders with Greece and Bulgaria: “We will not close our gates for refugees. The European Union must keep its promises. ”Erdogan accuses the EU of not keeping the promises made in the Refugee Pact.
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According to Erdogan, 18,000 refugees have already come to the Turkish borders with the EU since Friday.
“We heard that the border was open and is gone,” said 17-year-old Iranian Ali Nikad, who made it to Greece with a group of friends. “But we saw that it was closed and found a hole in the fence and are through there.” He had spent two months in Turkey and now hope to find his uncle in Greece.
Arrested and continued in white vans
Others tried to cut holes in the border fence, according to the news agency, but were driven back with tear gas and stun grenades. However, small groups secretly crossed the border. Most of them were men from Afghanistan. There were also families with small children.
Overnight, they sought refuge in abandoned buildings and small chapels. It was seen that many who had crossed the land border were arrested and continued in white vans.
The EU and Turkey signed a refugee agreement in March 2016 after hundreds of thousands of refugees came to Central Europe via the Balkans route in 2015. After the sometimes heavily criticized refugee pact, the number of Syrians entering the European Union via Turkey fell significantly.
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