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Turkey, Pressing E.U. for Help in Syria, Threatens to Open Borders to Refugees Turkey, Pressing E.U. for Help in Syria, Threatens to Open Borders to Refugees
(about 7 hours later)
BRUSSELS — In an apparently coordinated effort by Turkey to raise the pressure on Europe, Turkish state news agencies on Friday showed videos of hundreds of migrants making their way to the Turkish-Greek land border, seemingly facilitated by the Turkish authorities. ATHENS — Time and again, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey wants something from the Europeans, he has reminded them that he is the gatekeeper to tens of thousands of refugees he could send their way.
The broadcasts, an apparent effort by Turkey to press European leaders into supporting its military campaign in northern Syria, came hours after Turkey suffered heavy losses in fighting in Idlib Province in Syria, prompting an extraordinary NATO ambassadors’ meeting and fears of escalation. Friday was much the same, as Turkey demanded help from NATO after a deadly clash in Syria. But this time, Mr. Erdogan not only threatened to let refugees enter Greece. Local officials bought several thousands of them tickets, helped them onto shiny Mercedes-Benz buses and drove them to the border.
European Union officials, fearful of a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis, were apprehensively watching the developments in Turkey on Friday, as migrants were shown on live television making their way to Turkey’s borders with Greece. The mini-exodus was accompanied step by step by state-run Turkish media, which live-streamed scenes of harried families pushing off shore for Greek islands in scenes reminiscent of the 2015 migrant crisis that Europe was able to solve only with Turkish help.
Videos released by Anadolu, Turkey’s state-controlled news wire, showed migrants making their way through fields and roads close to the Turkish-Greek border. A migrant interviewed by a Turkish channel near the border said she had been driven there free by bus. The echoes of that crisis were no doubt deliberate on the part of Mr. Erdogan, who knew he could count on the desperation of refugees eager to make their way to Europe to make his point. Friday’s events were widely seen as his attempt to weaponize both the desperation of migrants and the xenophobia of Europe.
A Turkish news crew also filmed a boat of migrants as it departed for Greece, in a stunt that implied coordination among smugglers, Turkish officials and the private news media, whose owners are heavily influenced by the government. “He’s trying to say, ‘What happens in Idlib doesn’t stay in Idlib,’” said Aaron Stein, a Turkey expert at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, an American think tank. “‘You Europeans have been free riding on our backs for years now, and as the situation grows more serious, our problem is now your problem.’”
Another group that had been driven to the coast turned back after it realized there were no more boats ready to smuggle its members to Greece. But the steady drip of footage at least initially appeared to be coordinated, rather than an organic mass movement of refugees. “I think this is mostly for show,’’ Mr. Stein added, ‘‘but I don’t know when the show ends.”
Local organizations and the authorities on the Greek islands said two boats had arrived on Lesbos on Friday morning. Lighthouse Relief, an aid group that helps coordinate landings in Lesbos, said it had witnessed a Turkish Coast Guard ship approach one of the boats and then let it pass. It was the ninth time, in fact, that the Turkish president has promised to send a new surge of refugees Europe’s way. Whether Mr. Erdogan was merely dangling the threat again, or will unleash a full-blown crisis remains to be seen.
The Greek authorities said they were reinforcing controls at their land borders with Turkey in the north, as well as preparedness on the islands in the northeastern Aegean that bore the brunt of the 2015-16 crisis and still host dozens of thousands of migrants in appalling conditions. If Turkey’s leader does mean business, he will open not only the border to Greece but also the border with Syria, where he has blocked several hundred thousand would-be refugees as fighting has intensified in the area of Idlib.
Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said there were “significant numbers” of people making their way to the northern land border with Turkey but warned that his country’s doors were closed.
“Significant numbers of migrants and refugees have gathered in large groups at the Greek-Turkish land border and have attempted to enter the country illegally,” he wrote on Twitter. “I want to be clear: no illegal entries into Greece will be tolerated.” But Turkish actions throughout Friday suggested that Mr. Erdogan’s latest threat could be his most credible.
“Greece does not bear any responsibility for the tragic events in Syria and will not suffer the consequences of decisions taken by others,” he added. All day, his government shuttled hundreds of migrants from the center of Istanbul to the Turkish land border with Greece — for free. Overnight, migrants were told to gather outside the headquarters of Istanbul’s migration authority, down the road from the city’s main police station.
Turkey has shown no sign of opening its southern border with Syria, where several hundred thousand Syrians are sheltering from attacks by the Assad government. Nor has it rescinded visa restrictions for Syrians living in Lebanon and Jordan. In broad daylight, officials then helped herd more than 600 migrants onto at least 12 buses sent to the Turkish-Greek land border, some 150 miles to the northwest.
A large proportion of the refugee influx to Europe in 2015 were Syrians who had come directly from Syria — or who had traveled by plane into Turkey from Jordan and Lebanon. The coaches were provided by local municipalities, according to three coach drivers who spoke on condition of anonymity. Police officers battled to keep order as migrants laden with snacks, backpacks, strollers, suitcases and diapers jostled for space on the coaches.
After the mass movement of asylum seekers in 2015, the European Union had struck a deal with Ankara, which saw it funding international and local organizations to help refugees in Turkey with 6.6 billion euros ($7.2 billion). The deal also foresaw that Syrians could be returned to Turkey from Greek islands, but in practice, the Greek government has not made much use of this provision. As many as 3,000 more migrants were sent from other towns and cities in the country, a refugee at the border estimated. Internal legal restrictions on migrants’ movements seemed to have been temporarily rescinded, as taxi drivers and private car owners were allowed to drive Syrians and other foreigners directly to the border, in full view of the police.
“There is no official announcement from the Turkish side about any change to their asylum-seeker, refugee or migrant policy,” said Peter Stano, a spokesman from the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union. The display was an act of facilitation not seen even during the 2015-16 crisis, when Turkey turned a blind eye to the movement of refugees without ever physically organizing it.
“We expect Turkey to uphold its commitment,” he added. The brazenness of the operation spoke of Mr. Erdogan’s desperation and diplomatic isolation as Turkish forces have become ever more embroiled in the Syrian war.
But the Turkish government said that while its policy hadn’t changed formally, the situation had changed practically. In recent years, Turkish troops have created an informal protectorate in parts of northern Syria, sheltering Syrian rebels and displaced civilians from the Syrian government and the. government’s Russian allies.
“We have said that Turkey would not be able to carry the pressure of incoming refugees. After the attacks, refugees are going ahead toward Europe and towards Turkey,” the governing party spokesman, Omer Celik, told CNN Turk television overnight Friday. But that strategy collapsed in recent weeks, as the Syrian government, backed by Russian air power, retook vast tracts of land, increasingly drawing Turkish troops into the conflict.
“Our refugee policy is the same, but there is a situation here now and we are not in a position anymore to hold the refugees,” Mr. Celik said. This growing threat suddenly morphed into a full-blown crisis on Thursday night, when dozens of Turkish troops were killed in an airstrike — prompting Mr. Erdogan to demand help from his NATO allies in North America and Europe.
Even if migrants and refugees manage to arrive in Greece and Bulgaria, the repeat of a situation similar to the one in 2015 is highly unlikely. Not only have neighboring Greece and Bulgaria shut their borders to prevent further movements, but the European Union has also invested heavily in keeping people in those countries and preventing them from traveling onward to the continent’s north. Against that backdrop, Mr. Erdogan’s government began ferrying migrants to the border on Friday, seemingly in an attempt to cajole European politicians into giving him more support.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff reported from Brussels, and Patrick Kingsley from Jerusalem. Mr. Erdogan believes the West should give his military more air support in Syria, and his civil ministries more aid inside Turkey, where his government looks after more than 3 million Syrian refugees — more than any other country.
To underscore Mr. Erdogan’s threat, the state-run news agency, Anadolu, released a steady drip of footage of migrants approaching the Greek land border.
Similarly, a private Turkish channel — which appeared to have coordinated its movements with the Turkish authorities — filmed a group of Afghans departing by boat to a Greek island farther to the south.
“We are not in a position anymore to hold the refugees,” Omer Celik, a spokesman for Mr. Erdogan’s party, said early Friday.
The sequence of events all but unravels a pact made in March 2016 between Turkey and the European Union, which prompted Mr. Erdogan to successfully end most migrant smuggling between Turkey and Greece. In exchange, the European Union promised to give Turkey funding worth 6.6 billion euros ($7.2 billion) to help refugees in Turkey.
The deal also allows Greece to return the Syrians to Turkey from the Greek islands, though in practice, the Greek government has not made much use of the provision.
When it comes to a new surge of refugees to Europe, though, there is little doubt that Mr. Erdogan still holds the keys. Migration between Turkey and Greece has fallen by more than 90 percent since its peak in 2015 largely because of restrictions enforced by Mr. Erdogan’s government.
And Mr. Erdogan’s maneuvers on Friday felt more like a media stunt than a realistic attempt to spark a mass movement comparable in scale to that witnessed at the peak of the crisis in 2015, when 10,000 people a day landed in Greece.
On Friday, fewer than 130 people landed on the Greek islands, according to the United Nations refugee agency, while those ferried to the Greek land border were unable to cross the fortifications there.
Significantly, in addition to showing no sign of opening its southern border with Syria, Turkey has also not rescinded visa restrictions for Syrians living in Lebanon and Jordan.
(A large proportion of the refugee influx to Europe in 2015 were Syrians who had come directly from Syria — or who had traveled by plane into Turkey from elsewhere in the Middle East.)
Even if migrants and refugees manage to arrive in Greece and Bulgaria, the repeat of a situation similar to the one in 2015 is highly unlikely.
Not only have those two neighboring countries shut their borders to prevent further movements, but the European Union has also invested heavily in keeping people in those countries, preventing them from traveling north.
At the Greek border, some migrants ultimately found themselves trapped in no-man’s land, tear-gassed by Greek border guards.
By nightfall several hundred of them were instead forlornly trying to cross a river that divides the two countries, but had only a total of three rubber dinghies.
“If there is anybody who can help us, please tell them,” said Somar al-Hussein, a 23-year-old Syrian Kurd marooned on a river bank near the Turkish town of Enez. “We have a problem here. We don’t know how to get to Greece.”
Mr. al-Hussein has only one hand, so had not even contemplated swimming across the river.
Did he feel used by the Turkish government?
“Maybe,” he said by telephone. “But I need a hospital for my eyes — and no one here can help me.”
Matina Stevis-Gridneff reported from Athens and Brussels, and Patrick Kingsley from Jerusalem.