Erdogan accuses Greece of killing refugees: “Who are they fooling?”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Greece of killing two refugees at the border with Turkey. Soldiers allegedly killed the refugees who wanted to go to the European Union. A third migrant is said to have been injured.
Over the last few days, more than 10,000 refugees from Turkey have gone to the borders with the European Union after Turkey decided not to stop them.
1 billion euros
Erdogan said at a press conference on Monday that he had refused an additional €1 billion from the EU to host refugees. “Who are they kidding? We don’t want this money.”
Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Monday that Greek soldiers did not shoot at migrants. “Everything else that is said about it is nothing more than the deliberate distribution of fake news.”
Erdogan to Merkel
On Monday evening, during a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated that the burden of the refugee crisis should be distributed more equitably. The Turkish news agency Anadolu reports this based on the Turkish authorities.
According to Erdogan, all countries “must live up to their international obligations by fairly sharing responsibilities,” Anadolu writes without specifying what those responsibilities are.
Erdogan is annoyed by the lack of support from Europe as the Syrian civil war drives hundreds of thousands of refugees towards the Syrian-Turkish border. Turkey is already hosting 3.6 million refugees from Syria.
In 2016 it was agreed that Turkey would stop migrants who wanted to make the crossing to the Greek islands as much as possible. In exchange, the EU would pay 6 billion euros to Turkey in four years, intended for the reception of refugees in Turkey itself. It had to put an end to the endless fleet of rubber boats that crossed from the Turkish coast to the Greek islands.
The Turkish authorities made it clear last week that they would no longer stop migrants heading for Europe. Since then, thousands of migrants from Turkey have gone to the border with Greece, where the Greek security forces are blocking them. That leads to chaotic situations.
