“What did we do yesterday? We opened the doors,” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Istanbul on Saturday, in his first public speech following the death of 33 Turkish soldiers in northern Syria.
“We will not close those doors. […] Why? Because the European Union should keep its promises,” the Turkish President declared.
The Turkish President also claimed that more than 18,000 refugees had gathered on Turkey’s borders with the EU, adding that this figure could rise to 30,000.
Erdogan: Will you help us with refugees?
Merkel: I can give 25M euro
…time goes by…
Erdogan: No money transferred. So then keep it to yourself. We'll send you refugees plus 100M euroshttps://t.co/nm3JULmUQ5 pic.twitter.com/fakjGs2gN6
— TRT World (@trtworld) February 29, 2020
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu uploaded a tweet in English on Saturday, accusing Greece of ”throwing tear gas bombs on thousands of innocents.”
Look who’s lecturing us on international law! They’re shamelessly throwing tear gas bombs on thousands of innocents piled at their gates. We don’t have an obligation to stop people leaving our country but #Greece has the duty to treat them as human beings! https://t.co/Av0v5GIy5o pic.twitter.com/C9ceVnlx4f
— Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (@MevlutCavusoglu) February 29, 2020
Showing how Turkey uses refugees and migrants as a geopolitical tool to put pressure on Europe, Cavusoglu said ”Look who’s lecturing us on international law! They’re shamelessly throwing tear gas bombs on thousands of innocents piled at their gates. We don’t have an obligation to stop people leaving our country but Greece has the duty to treat them as human beings!”
At the same time, Turkey’s TRT broadcaster, in its Arabic edition on Twitter, presented a map showing all potential routes refugees and migrants can take in order to reach central Europe.
الطريق إلى #فرنسا.. خريطة توضيحية للطرق التي من المحتمل أن يسلكها اللاجئون من #تركيا للوصول إلى فرنسا ودول أوروبية أخرى pic.twitter.com/N8SnT6rAdJ
— عربي TRT (@TRTArabi) February 28, 2020
Related: Erdogan Blackmails Greece, Europe with Flood of Migrants
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