untitled design

Erdogan threatens to reopen borders – Athens harsh response

The message to Ankara that Greece will respond decisively when threatened by countries that instrumentalize the Refugee, was sent by the government in response to inflammatory statements by Tayyip Erdogan during the joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister V. Orban, during which the country telling us “I do not know what will happen to Greece if we open our borders to 5 million refugees”.

In particular, Tayyip Erdogan denied responsibility in Turkey for instrumentalizing refugee / migration flows to Europe and attacked Athens.

The Turkish president claimed that Athens was responsible for the immigration crisis, saying, according to Euronews, that “Greece is responsible for the death of refugees by puncturing their boats and we have all the documents that prove it.”

Erdogan also turned his fire on Mr. Mitsotakis, saying that “it is ungrateful to say that Turkey is the source of the problem, while our country is hosting 5 million refugees.”

“Mitsotakis and his entourage spend their days lying and not behaving honestly and that is why they do not inspire confidence in the region,” Erdogan added.

The Turkish president even found support in Victor Orban, who noted in a press conference that “we must help our Turkish friends in immigration. The EU must support Turkey as much as possible.”

The Hungarian prime minister stressed the need for a defensive perimeter around Europe, noting that the continent is under pressure from migratory flows from the Mediterranean, the Western Balkans and Belarus.

At the same time, Erdogan expressed his concern about the start of work to support and deploy a force of about 400 men of the American Armed Forces in Alexandroupolis, saying that Greece “has been transformed into a US military base”.

“The United States has chosen the wrong neighbor and it is not right for their position in the Aegean to be based on Greece. Such things should not happen in NATO,” he said.

Athens’ answer

The Greek government’s reaction to Erdogan’s new threats was immediate, with G. Oikonomou stressing in a statement that “Greece is a European rule of law. It protects its borders which are both borders of the European Union and at the same time saves human lives at sea“.

“When threatened by countries that use desperate people to achieve geopolitical goals,” the government spokesman continued, “Greece will always respond with determination. He did this in Evros in March 2020, with the support of Europe“.

Referring to the recent developments on the Belarus-EU border in Poland and the Baltic states, Mr. Economou stressed that Europe will not tolerate the instrumentalization of refugees.

“And this is a message that everyone should take seriously,” he added.

.

Source From: Capital

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular