Thousands of migrants in Turkey face off with riot police at Greek border – President Erdogan says, “We opened the doors”
By Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Carlotta Gall
29 February 2020
KASTANIES, Greece (The New York Times) – With tear gas clouding the air, thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe clashed with riot police officers on the Greek border with Turkey on Saturday morning, signaling a new and potentially volatile phase in the migration crisis.
The scene at Kastanies, a normally quiet Greek border checkpoint into Turkey, rapidly became a tense confrontation with the potential to worsen as dozens of Greek security officers and soldiers fired canisters of tear gas. Riot police officers with batons, shields and masks confronted the migrants through the wire, yelling at them to stay back.
About 4,000 migrants of various nationalities were pressed against the Turkish side of the border. An additional 500 or so people were trapped between two border posts, but still on the Turkish side, at the long and heavily militarized land border that has turned into the flash point of the tug of war between Turkey and Europe.
Some people had climbed onto the limbs of trees or were crouching against the thick loops of barbed wired placed on the ground by the Greek Army. They cheered, booed and screamed to be let through.
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.
He accused European leaders of not keeping their promises to help Turkey bear the load of millions of Syrians. […]
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 Europe’s doorstep, they were met with a violent crackdown. […]
The mini-exodus was live-streamed by Turkish state television in scenes reminiscent of the 2015 migrant crisis that Europe solved 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. [more]
Erdogan Says, ‘We Opened the Doors,’ and Clashes Erupt as Migrants Head for Europe
