Erdogan opens Turkey's borders for migrants to cross into Europe

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/world/europe/turkey-migrants-eu.html

Erdogan Says, ‘We Opened the Doors,’ and Clashes Erupt as Migrants Head for Europe
Thousands of migrants in Turkey faced off with riot police at the Greek border, and the Turkish leader lashed out at the E.U., saying it had not helped him manage a growing crisis in northern Syria.
By Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Carlotta Gall
Feb. 29, 2020

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey declared on Saturday that he had opened his country’s borders for migrants to cross into Europe, saying that Turkey could no longer handle the numbers fleeing the war in Syria.

“What did we do yesterday?” he said in a televised speech in Istanbul. “We opened the doors.” His comments were his first to acknowledge what he had long threatened to do, push some of the millions of Syrian refugees and other migrants in Turkey toward Europe in order to cajole the European Union to heed Turkey’s demands.

The migrants at the border had heeded Mr. Erdogan’s call and rushed to Turkey’s borders with Europe, some on Friday taking free rides on buses organized by Turkish officials. But once at the Europe’s doorstep, they were met with a violent crackdown.

Migrants were also heading by sea to the Turkish coast, from where they hope to reach Greek islands, facilitated by the Turkish authorities, but officials reported few arrivals Saturday, perhaps because of poor weather at sea.

The mini-exodus was live-streamed by Turkish state television in scenes reminiscent of the 2015 migrant crisis that Europe had solve only with Turkey’s help. Syrians shared information, some joking about the Turkish facilitation, suggesting they should publish the telephone numbers of people smugglers, too.

The International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency, said that as many as 10,000 were making their way through Turkey to the northern land borders, in hopes of reaching Europe.

The Greek authorities said on Saturday that they had intercepted some 4,000 people attempting to cross at various spots of the 50-mile border overnight, and only a few had been successful and made it to Greece.

[2naSalit]

1. ...

Fucker. He made a deal with the devil and got bit in the nuts. Now he takes revenge on a continent that would not abide his greed. Sounds terribly familiar.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Erdogan claiming that the EU "had not helped him manage a growing crisis in northern Syria."

Translated: EU hadn't helped him claim land in another sovereign nation as land to be incorporated into his country, Turkey, to resurrect the Ottoman Empire.

[moondust]

3. Too bad...

Assad didn't step on a landmine about 10 years ago. Maybe his successor would have been open to negotiating an end to the Assad family of brutal dictators and war criminals; maybe even welcomed democratization. Things certainly couldn't have turned out worse than millions of refugees with nowhere to go and cities reduced to rubble.