Turkey Promises to Increase Migrants Quantity to the EU

Ankara sent a thousand special forces soldiers to the border with Greece, thus, preventing the displacement of refugees back into Turkey. Despite the acute situation on the border with Greece, where thousands of refugees wishing to enter the EU wait, the Turkish authorities promised to release an even greater number of migrants from the country to the European Union. Obstacles to the EU will be lifted for residents of the Syrian province of Idlib, who will finally be able to hit the road to European countries, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on Thursday, March 5. “This is not a threat or blackmail,” the Turkish Interior Minister said. The reason for this decision is the “inhumane actions” of the regime in Damascus, forcing millions to live in extremely distressed situations, he further noted. Ankara sent 1,000 special forces soldiers to the border with Greece In addition, a thousand police special forces will be sent to the border with Greece in order to prevent the coming back to Turkey of migrants who crossed the border, said Soylu, who visited one of the checkpoints on the same day. According to him, the Greek side tried to expel 4.9 thousand illegal migrants to Turkey. On the NTV television channel, Soylu also claimed that 137,000 people had already crossed the border in the province of Edirne in the EU. In turn, the Greek media reported that over the past day, police and military personnel of the country prevented almost seven thousand attempts to illegally cross the border with Turkey. Turkey releases illegal immigrants to the EU On February 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, against the backdrop of an escalation of the situation in Syrian Idlib, announced Ankara’s intention to allow Syrian refugees into EU countries in defiance of agreements with the EU. “Yesterday we opened the gates,” he said in Istanbul, accusing the EU of not complying with the refugee agreement. An agreement concluded between Ankara and Brussels in March 2016 implies that Syrian migrants traveling to the EU countries will not be allowed to cross the Turkish borders. For this, the EU promised Ankara financial support. The troops of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with the support of the aviation of the Russian Federation, have been conducting a large-scale operation in Idlib for several months. This province is the last region of the country controlled by jihadists and rebels. According to the UN, almost 950 thousand out of the three million inhabitants of Idlib left their homes in the fighting areas in northwestern Syria.