Turkey Reported 76 Thousand Migrants Crossing EU Border

Ankara claims that Turkish border guards let in 76 thousand migrants to the EU; Greece and Bulgaria have not confirmed these data yet. Ankara said that Turkish border guards let over 75 thousand migrants cross the border to the EU. By10:00 Moscow time on Sunday, March 1, the border in the province of Edirne adjacent to Greece and Bulgaria was crossed by 76,358 people, Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soilu said on Twitter. In turn, the AFP agency, citing its correspondents, writes that at least two thousand more refugees arrived at the Pazarkul checkpoint from Istanbul, intending to enter Greece, including Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis. Greece and Bulgaria do not confirm mass border crossing by migrants At the same time, neither Sofia nor Athens has yet confirmed the penetration of a large number of illegal migrants on their territory. According to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum of Greece, the country's police prevented 9600 migrants from crossing the border from Turkey. In addition, authorities in Athens reported that, contrary to fears, the night of March 1 at the border went quietly. Greece again strengthened its units along the border with Turkey due to entry of thousands of illegal immigrants into the country threat. In addition, patrols were strengthened in the straits between the Greek islands and the Turkish coast of the Aegean Sea, Athens further reported. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), on the Turkish side of the 212-kilometer border with Greece in the evening of February 29 there were more than 13 thousand people hoping to infiltrate the EU after Ankara refused to restrain this flow. Berlin urged to abandon harsh reaction to Erdogan's statement Meanwhile, Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee, called on the EU to refrain from harshly responding to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision not to restrain refugees on the EU border. His statement was made in an “extremely threatening form,” but in fact it is a “cry for help” addressed to the European Union, a German conservative politician told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview. “We should understand it this way, and not as a provocation,” says Röttgen, who is one of the candidates for the post of chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), German Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to him, Erdogan’s attempt to cooperate in the Syrian conflict with Russia failed, and that’s what he is trying to convey to the Europeans now. Röttgen called on the EU to provide Turkey with additional financial assistance and expand other support measures. Erdogan intends to let Syrian refugees into the EU On the eve Erdogan announced his intention to allow Syrian refugees to the EU countries in defiance of an agreement with the EU. “Yesterday we opened the gate,” he said on Saturday, February 29, in Istanbul. Accusing the EU of not complying with the refugee agreement, Erdogan emphasized that Turkey cannot feed so many people. In response to the Turkish leader statement, the Greek and Bulgarian authorities strengthened border guard measures. In Athens, they announced the successful prevention of organized mass border crossing migrants from Turkey. Greece intends to contain the wave of refugees at all costs, said Stelios Petsas, cabinet spokesman in Athens. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised Bulgaria and Greece border support. EU-Turkey Refugee Agreement The agreement concluded between Ankara and Brussels in March 2016 suggests that migrants from Syria going to the EU countries will not pass through the Turkish borders. For this, the European Union promised the Turkish side financial support. According to relevant UN data, Turkey has accepted about 3.6 million refugees from Syria. These numbers have risen recently against the backdrop of the Russian-supported offensive by the Syrian government forces in Idlib. In addition to the Syrians, in Turkey there is a significant number of forced migrants from Afghanistan and Iraq.