The crisis on the Greek-Turkish border is growing by the day. Thousands of migrants from all across Asia and Africa have gathered at a so-called “no man’s land” between the Turkish and Greek border, trying to enter Europe by force.
“To halt the push-back of migrants we have deployed 1,000 special police forces, fully-equipped special police forces, as of this morning. Together with the zodiac boats, we will not provide an opening to the maltreatment of people there. I like to express that we have taken the necessary measures to protect our borders from a push-back and to prevent the Greeks’ several attempts that were made in the framework of violation of the international rules”, stated the Turkish Minister of Interior, Suleyman Soylu.
Turkey deployed 1,000 special police forces along its border with Greece on Thursday to halt the pushback of migrants towards its territory. According to the Turkish interior minister, 164 migrants had been wounded by Greek authorities. Soylu’s comments come amid a war of words between Ankara and Athens following Turkey’s decision to no longer abide by a 2016 deal with the European Union to halt illegal migration flows to Europe in return for billions of euros in aid.
Since then, thousands of migrants have rushed to the Turkish border with Greece in hopes of crossing into Europe. Ankara has accused Greek authorities of injuring, as well as shooting dead, migrants near the border. Athens has rejected this, saying Turkish police were helping migrants cross the border illegally.
President Tayyip Erdogan met with EU officials on Wednesday to discuss developments in Syria and the migrants flooding the European borders. Erdogan’s spokesman later said “no concrete proposition” on the migrants was made at the talks.