Turkey threatens to unleash refugees on Europe

[webfact]

Turkey threatens to unleash refugees on Europe



ANKARA: -- As Syrians continue to pour out of the battered city of Aleppo aid agencies are delivering much needed supplies to those fleeing the carnage.

Tens of thousands have congregated on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey in the hope they can enter the country.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants more from the international community to help Turkey deal with the more than 2 million migrants in the country.

“In Erdine near the Turkish border with Greece and Bulgaria we stop migrants put them on a bus and take back into Turkey. How often can we do this, we could just open the doors and say “have a good journey.”

Turkey’s Oncupinar border crossing with Syria remains closed forcing those escaping Aleppo to seek sanctuary in the Atama Camp close to the border.

One displaced person blames Assad and Russia:“Because of the fierce campaign carried out by the regime and the intensity of the Russian jets in the villages of the western suburbs of Aleppo, the result is the huge displacement of people.”

The Atama Camp is already bursting and temporary home to 70,000 people escaping the conflict from all over Syria.

The addition of thousands more arriving from Aleppo only adds to the desperation.


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-02-12

[Steely Dan]

Only yesterday Turkey announced it stopped four insurgents from Syria armed with suicide belts, the threat is quite clear, our fellow NATO member is threatening to flood Europe with Islamic terrorists, or else. Accession to the EU would of course give free passage to 70 million Muslims, which would kill Europe without question. Best give them some money now, stall for time and build barrier fences round every last meter of the EU border.

[NeverSure]

The Rise and Fall of The Western European Empires. Coming to a theater near you.

[SgtRock]

euro's 3.3 Billion a year is not enough.

Cough up more or we unleash the beast.

Well played Merkel.

[NongKhaiKid]

" We could just open the doors... " however if you cross our palms with more silver etc. !

[SgtRock]

NongKhaiKid, on 12 Feb 2016 - 08:54, said:

" We could just open the doors... " however if you cross our palms with more silver etc. !

Ha.

We posted at the same time.

Strange, that we both came to the same conclusion.

[Naam]

NongKhaiKid, on 12 Feb 2016 - 08:54, said:

" We could just open the doors... " however if you cross our palms with more silver etc. !

Ha.

We posted at the same time.

Strange, that we both came to the same conclusion.

geniuses think alike

[NongKhaiKid]

NongKhaiKid, on 12 Feb 2016 - 08:54, said:

" We could just open the doors... " however if you cross our palms with more silver etc. !

Ha.

We posted at the same time.

Strange, that we both came to the same conclusion.

Wow, are you any good with lottery numbers ?

All the migrants at Turkey's door are a problem no doubt but every cloud has a SILVER lining and I doubt they'll pass up the opportunity to cash in.

I though Mummy Merkel and her promises had them under control.

[welsh wizard]

So will turkey continue to blackmail, if they are allowed to join EU. Another reason to keep them out and UK to exit.

[i claudius]

If we think that this will end well its just the begining ,as country's like Africa run out of food and water ,and the middle east implodes , because they just not only hate us but cant stand each other the flow we are seeing now will in the coming 20 or so years become a flood of biblical proportions , i do not know what the answer is , but building walls around Europe and guarding them with soldiers will be the only answer , that is unless a pandemic kills off half the worlds population , if it doesnt ,there will be billions more of us in the coming years ,

[Geoffggi]

Now we come to the crunch, time for our politicians to stand-up and be counted as being supportive for the countries they represent and not looking good in the eyes of the rest of the world, send all who have not come through the correct channels back to where they came from, stop pussy footing around as the immigrants don't care what damage they do to our countries, it is a hard line I know, but we are talking about survival, and not giving everything away that we have fought for over many years.

[SgtRock]

Geoffggi, on 12 Feb 2016 - 10:18, said:

Now we come to the crunch, time for our politicians to stand-up and be counted as being supportive for the countries they represent and not looking good in the eyes of the rest of the world, send all who have not come through the correct channels back to where they came from, stop pussy footing around as the immigrants don't care what damage they do to our countries, it is a hard line I know, but we are talking about survival, and not giving everything away that we have fought for over many years.

You are 100% correct in what you say.

Guess what. It ain't going to happen.

[Usernames]

Camp of the Saints.

[chilli42]

I don't think even a threat like this can galvanize the morons that run Europe to come up with a plan and take coordinated action. The pathetic leadership of Europe simply plan more meetings, actively suppress the tent of the problem, release meaningless sound bites and basically dither. The U.K. Is the only country that seems to have shown any level of common sense by trying to exit the EU and distance themselves from these clowns.

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.

[Galactus]

Only yesterday Turkey announced it stopped four insurgents from Syria armed with suicide belts, the threat is quite clear, our fellow NATO member is threatening to flood Europe with Islamic terrorists, or else. Accession to the EU would of course give free passage to 70 million Muslims, which would kill Europe without question. Best give them some money now, stall for time and build barrier fences round every last meter of the EU border.

what you say is so selfish. so you say Turkey needs to keep those Islamist terrorists? so they can go bomb around in Turkey and kill Turks as it does not matter anyway as they are Turks and muslim! Bravo, TV selfishness award goes to you then.

even a broken clock (Erdogan) shows the right time twice a day.

I believe Turkey right away need to reject that cheap amount coming from Europe (for gods sake, what is that so talked 3 billion Euros? it is not even enough to feed 3 million migrants, it makes a cheap 100 euros for each migrant for how many years!) and open their western borders to migrants or terrorist whatever inside them so they can travel to Europe freely. This is what EU deserves.

So, what? Those terrorist with belts can enter and stay in Turkey (EU and UN wants Turkey to open their borders again! hypocrites! and like it is their borders) and no problems for Europe as national security of Turkey is not their problem and they will give 3 billion euros to Turkey anyway!? what a poor selfish thinking. so it is only EU problem when Turkey allows migrants to travel Europe freely and they never care about another country with a high burden before, burden of all mankind IMO.

I feel shy and bad as a human when i see the efforts of Turkey(which is not a very rich country) and when i realize richer nations doing nothing towards millions of migrants. you dont?

those Syrians are a bigger national threat for Turkey too as there are around 3 million there and god knows how many of them are terrorists. so a lot of ticking bombs in Turkey when you compare with Europe.

I believe Turkey gave a good hard lesson to Europe. they cannot let only one country to handle such crises by basically saying 'i dont care' and ' i dont care about the countries hosting millions of migrants' or ' i dont care about the national security threat in Turkey or other countries there' or' they are muslim anyway' until they see the migrants in major European cities and realize the problem at their doors.

in terms of accession of Turkey to EU, i hope it never happens and i am sure Turkey will not be eager to handle the bill of weak European economy or likes of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and more.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Galactus

[Rancid]

Only yesterday Turkey announced it stopped four insurgents from Syria armed with suicide belts, the threat is quite clear, our fellow NATO member is threatening to flood Europe with Islamic terrorists, or else. Accession to the EU would of course give free passage to 70 million Muslims, which would kill Europe without question. Best give them some money now, stall for time and build barrier fences round every last meter of the EU border.

what you say is so selfish. so you say Turkey needs to keep those Islamist terrorists? so they can go bomb around in Turkey and kill Turks as it does not matter anyway as they are Turks and muslim! Bravo, TV selfishness award goes to you then.

even a broken clock (Erdogan) shows the right time twice a day.

I believe Turkey right away need to reject that cheap amount coming from Europe (for gods sake, what is that so talked 3 billion Euros? it is not even enough to feed 3 million migrants, it makes a cheap 100 euros for each migrant for how many years!) and open their western borders to migrants or terrorist whatever inside them so they can travel to Europe freely. This is what EU deserves.

So, what? Those terrorist with belts can enter and stay in Turkey (EU and UN wants Turkey to open their borders again! hypocrites! and like it is their borders) and no problems for Europe as national security of Turkey is not their problem and they will give 3 billion euros to Turkey anyway!? what a poor selfish thinking. so it is only EU problem when Turkey allows migrants to travel Europe freely and they never care about another country with a high burden before, burden of all mankind IMO.

I feel shy and bad as a human when i see the efforts of Turkey(which is not a very rich country) and when i realize richer nations doing nothing towards millions of migrants. you dont?

those Syrians are a bigger national threat for Turkey too as there are around 3 million there and god knows how many of them are terrorists. so a lot of ticking bombs in Turkey when you compare with Europe.

I believe Turkey gave a good hard lesson to Europe. they cannot let only one country to handle such crises by basically saying 'i dont care' and ' i dont care about the countries hosting millions of migrants' or ' i dont care about the national security threat in Turkey or other countries there' or' they are muslim anyway' until they see the migrants in major European cities and realize the problem at their doors.

in terms of accession of Turkey to EU, i hope it never happens and i am sure Turkey will not be eager to handle the bill of weak European economy or likes of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and more.

Of course best to ignore that Turkey has been up to its neck in helping the Syrian war along and profiting quite nicely to boot. They are in large part the cause of the migrants.

[Morch]

Even by Middle East standards, Erdogan is a character. Seems like each and every foreign relations interaction is not complete without the (not so) surprise flip.

So yes, playing his hand with the migrant/refugee crisis is all very well - but could be done more diplomatically, and could have been handled without the drama.

As for the money recently promised by the EU - was that a one-time or an annual thing?

Building fences, locking up gates and manning the walls - alright. What's next? Ultimately, these measures do not solve the issues, merely manage a crisis situation. If the EU does not wish to turn into Fortress Europe, with all that it entails, there ought to be some thinking on how best to affect the situation in regions whence migrants/refugees arrive from. But with the EU policy seemingly comprised of knee-jerk reactions ( let the migrants/refugees in, pay off Turkey to deal with it, close borders, open borders....) it is unlikely that any such long term efforts could be seriously discussed, nevermind implemented.

[Galactus]

Only yesterday Turkey announced it stopped four insurgents from Syria armed with suicide belts, the threat is quite clear, our fellow NATO member is threatening to flood Europe with Islamic terrorists, or else. Accession to the EU would of course give free passage to 70 million Muslims, which would kill Europe without question. Best give them some money now, stall for time and build barrier fences round every last meter of the EU border.

what you say is so selfish. so you say Turkey needs to keep those Islamist terrorists? so they can go bomb around in Turkey and kill Turks as it does not matter anyway as they are Turks and muslim! Bravo, TV selfishness award goes to you then.

even a broken clock (Erdogan) shows the right time twice a day.

I believe Turkey right away need to reject that cheap amount coming from Europe (for gods sake, what is that so talked 3 billion Euros? it is not even enough to feed 3 million migrants, it makes a cheap 100 euros for each migrant for how many years!) and open their western borders to migrants or terrorist whatever inside them so they can travel to Europe freely. This is what EU deserves.

So, what? Those terrorist with belts can enter and stay in Turkey (EU and UN wants Turkey to open their borders again! hypocrites! and like it is their borders) and no problems for Europe as national security of Turkey is not their problem and they will give 3 billion euros to Turkey anyway!? what a poor selfish thinking. so it is only EU problem when Turkey allows migrants to travel Europe freely and they never care about another country with a high burden before, burden of all mankind IMO.

I feel shy and bad as a human when i see the efforts of Turkey(which is not a very rich country) and when i realize richer nations doing nothing towards millions of migrants. you dont?

those Syrians are a bigger national threat for Turkey too as there are around 3 million there and god knows how many of them are terrorists. so a lot of ticking bombs in Turkey when you compare with Europe.

I believe Turkey gave a good hard lesson to Europe. they cannot let only one country to handle such crises by basically saying 'i dont care' and ' i dont care about the countries hosting millions of migrants' or ' i dont care about the national security threat in Turkey or other countries there' or' they are muslim anyway' until they see the migrants in major European cities and realize the problem at their doors.

in terms of accession of Turkey to EU, i hope it never happens and i am sure Turkey will not be eager to handle the bill of weak European economy or likes of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and more.

Of course best to ignore that Turkey has been up to its neck in helping the Syrian war along and profiting quite nicely to boot. They are in large part the cause of the migrants.

profiting from? from a war happening at a neighboring country? i think you have no idea as this only makes a country, in this case Turkey, weaker and make them lose money and investment as now no trade with Syria and other countries there, their economy suffers as there are always some problems at their borders and that makes foreign investors to go invest somewhere else so do tourists, they dont want to come to a country war at their borders naturally.

so, overall, turks lost a lot from this war.

on top, i am sure you are not aware of the fact that Turkey spent around '9 billion euros' for the migrants so far directly and indirectly more while EU sucker hypocrites are complaining, bi.tching and moaning about 3 billion Euros they want to send to Turkey. check it out.

also it is not Turks started this war there so what makes you think they are responsible for this? i believe Putin Russia by being a lapdog of Assad has more responsibility.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Galactus

[khunken]

The headline should read : Turkey threatens to unleash MORE refugees on Europe.

Where the hell did the million or so enter Europe from? Turkey & Libya mostly.

This is all about Turkey playing games (looking for more money) with the latest refugees after getting agreement for Billions already.

While I do have some sympathy for the Turks having to cater for around 2 million refugees and do deserve assistance to treat them humanely, Turkey has been very duplicious in trading with IS and regarding the Kurds as a greater danger than IS and Al-Nusra.

Turkey, along with all the involved finger pointing western & gulf hypocrites are just as responsible for the refugee crisis from the war in Syria as Assad, Russia & Iran.

Edited February 12, 2016 by khunken

[thaibeachlovers]

Even by Middle East standards, Erdogan is a character. Seems like each and every foreign relations interaction is not complete without the (not so) surprise flip.

So yes, playing his hand with the migrant/refugee crisis is all very well - but could be done more diplomatically, and could have been handled without the drama.

As for the money recently promised by the EU - was that a one-time or an annual thing?

Building fences, locking up gates and manning the walls - alright. What's next? Ultimately, these measures do not solve the issues, merely manage a crisis situation. If the EU does not wish to turn into Fortress Europe, with all that it entails, there ought to be some thinking on how best to affect the situation in regions whence migrants/refugees arrive from. But with the EU policy seemingly comprised of knee-jerk reactions ( let the migrants/refugees in, pay off Turkey to deal with it, close borders, open borders....) it is unlikely that any such long term efforts could be seriously discussed, nevermind implemented.

My prediction. Euro countries will do nothing that makes a difference, politicians will generate zillions of cubic meters of hot air talking about it, and when it all turns into a pile of steaming excrement they will stand in a circle pointing their fingers at each other and saying "it was their fault".

[Steely Dan]

Only yesterday Turkey announced it stopped four insurgents from Syria armed with suicide belts, the threat is quite clear, our fellow NATO member is threatening to flood Europe with Islamic terrorists, or else. Accession to the EU would of course give free passage to 70 million Muslims, which would kill Europe without question. Best give them some money now, stall for time and build barrier fences round every last meter of the EU border.

what you say is so selfish. so you say Turkey needs to keep those Islamist terrorists? so they can go bomb around in Turkey and kill Turks as it does not matter anyway as they are Turks and muslim! Bravo, TV selfishness award goes to you then.

even a broken clock (Erdogan) shows the right time twice a day.

I believe Turkey right away need to reject that cheap amount coming from Europe (for gods sake, what is that so talked 3 billion Euros? it is not even enough to feed 3 million migrants, it makes a cheap 100 euros for each migrant for how many years!) and open their western borders to migrants or terrorist whatever inside them so they can travel to Europe freely. This is what EU deserves.

So, what? Those terrorist with belts can enter and stay in Turkey (EU and UN wants Turkey to open their borders again! hypocrites! and like it is their borders) and no problems for Europe as national security of Turkey is not their problem and they will give 3 billion euros to Turkey anyway!? what a poor selfish thinking. so it is only EU problem when Turkey allows migrants to travel Europe freely and they never care about another country with a high burden before, burden of all mankind IMO.

I feel shy and bad as a human when i see the efforts of Turkey(which is not a very rich country) and when i realize richer nations doing nothing towards millions of migrants. you dont?

those Syrians are a bigger national threat for Turkey too as there are around 3 million there and god knows how many of them are terrorists. so a lot of ticking bombs in Turkey when you compare with Europe.

I believe Turkey gave a good hard lesson to Europe. they cannot let only one country to handle such crises by basically saying 'i dont care' and ' i dont care about the countries hosting millions of migrants' or ' i dont care about the national security threat in Turkey or other countries there' or' they are muslim anyway' until they see the migrants in major European cities and realize the problem at their doors.

in terms of accession of Turkey to EU, i hope it never happens and i am sure Turkey will not be eager to handle the bill of weak European economy or likes of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and more.

Turkey should make its own mind up whether or not to open her borders, the EU should do likewise. I acknowledge the costs to Turkey of housing the refugees is large and they should be given external help. The trouble is Erdogan is resorting to blackmail and remember this is the same Erdogan who did little or nothing to stop people from Europe transiting Turkey's borders to join ISIS. Both Europe and Turkey share some blame, but Erdogan seems to try and play both sides with every problem he faces, as such Turkey is a liability to NATO and would likewise be to the EU. I would also suggest predominantly Sunni Muslim refugees would be far better housed in a Sunni Muslim Country.

[Saradoc1972]

Even by Middle East standards, Erdogan is a character. Seems like each and every foreign relations interaction is not complete without the (not so) surprise flip.

So yes, playing his hand with the migrant/refugee crisis is all very well - but could be done more diplomatically, and could have been handled without the drama.

As for the money recently promised by the EU - was that a one-time or an annual thing?

Building fences, locking up gates and manning the walls - alright. What's next? Ultimately, these measures do not solve the issues, merely manage a crisis situation. If the EU does not wish to turn into Fortress Europe, with all that it entails, there ought to be some thinking on how best to affect the situation in regions whence migrants/refugees arrive from. But with the EU policy seemingly comprised of knee-jerk reactions ( let the migrants/refugees in, pay off Turkey to deal with it, close borders, open borders....) it is unlikely that any such long term efforts could be seriously discussed, nevermind implemented.

Erdowahn* is the autocratic nutter-in-chief at Europe's borders. I almost wonder how he was not getting along with Assad.

Actually, Greece threatened the same thing when the bail-out over the Euro-crisis was under discussion. Some MP and the minister of finance said they could issue their 200k migrants Schengen-papers. In Germany that was dismissed because "the wrong minister" had made that threat. Might have been a cue for politicians around here to think about securing some borders, just in case.... but no.

That 3 billion € is for the next 2 years, more is sure to follow, if this is even final for the time being. Actually, Turkey has a point. I mean they have taken in 2 million and nobody seemed to care, just like nobody cared when Greece and Italy were inundated with Africans. And while life down there is much cheaper, they don't get so much cultural trouble with their fellow-Muslims, and their economy is agricultural and mostly much simpler than the German, it's all a bit much for them. On top they realized those people are going to stay for years, and Turkey is pretty nationalistic and used to be ethnically rather homogeneous, discounting the Kurds. They have their own lower standards regarding accommodation and everything, e.g. they have not so much bothered setting up schools, which made Saudi Arabia step in, just on their own terms, the usual. If you ask me, that is where a lot of money should go from the EU, in its own best interest.

I hope he whole issue will make Europe think about its borders and how to stymie and funnel migration. This is just a prelude of what is to come in the next decades with half a billion of Africans losing their livelihood. If that asylum business and the situation on the Meds is not remedied, there will be nothing left to take refuge.

* might be just my spelling, but "Wahn" is German for "lunacy"

[Morch]

What I was getting at is that tightening immigration controls may help the symptoms (which is fair enough, and no small matter), but does not solve or even deal with factors causing the crisis.

The not-our-business, let-them-sort-it-out-themselves, nuke'm and similar notions are unproductive or unrealistic. Long term, it is in Europe's best interest to address core issues, rather than their symptomatic manifestations. This does not have to go hand in hand with a guilt trip, and not even with open borders. But as observed by many, there is no leadership or unity of purpose which would allow this to happen.

Touching on the issue of Turkey benefiting from the crisis - there is often a disconnect between the profits (political/economic) incurred by a country, and those gained by its leadership. Also, there are different perceptions on what constitutes "benefits".

[NickJ]

Well, The UK can at least flood the tunnel....

[billd766]

To be fair to Turkey the UNHCR estimated that by the end of 2015 there would be nearly 1,900,000 refugees in Turkey alone and that is without counting the ones stuck on the borders.

http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e48e0fa7f.html

Couple that with their own population of almost 70 million and the money has to come from somewhere.

If they cannot afford to feed their own population let alone the refugees, what do you expect them to do?

[Morch]

To be fair to Turkey the UNHCR estimated that by the end of 2015 there would be nearly 1,900,000 refugees in Turkey alone and that is without counting the ones stuck on the borders.

http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e48e0fa7f.html

Couple that with their own population of almost 70 million and the money has to come from somewhere.

If they cannot afford to feed their own population let alone the refugees, what do you expect them to do?

I don't know that Turkey cannot afford to feed its own population, but granted that the refugee crisis is not something it should tackle on its own.

That said, if Erdogan was simply after international financial support, there could have been a number of more conductive ways to achieve it.

The issue here is that Erdogan plays too many hands at the same time, and over-milks the crisis to further his goals.

[Scott]

An off-topic post and replies removed.

[i claudius]

To be fair to Turkey the UNHCR estimated that by the end of 2015 there would be nearly 1,900,000 refugees in Turkey alone and that is without counting the ones stuck on the borders.

http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e48e0fa7f.html

Couple that with their own population of almost 70 million and the money has to come from somewhere.

If they cannot afford to feed their own population let alone the refugees, what do you expect them to do?

Send them back home

[thaibeachlovers]

What I was getting at is that tightening immigration controls may help the symptoms (which is fair enough, and no small matter), but does not solve or even deal with factors causing the crisis.

The not-our-business, let-them-sort-it-out-themselves, nuke'm and similar notions are unproductive or unrealistic. Long term, it is in Europe's best interest to address core issues, rather than their symptomatic manifestations. This does not have to go hand in hand with a guilt trip, and not even with open borders. But as observed by many, there is no leadership or unity of purpose which would allow this to happen.

Touching on the issue of Turkey benefiting from the crisis - there is often a disconnect between the profits (political/economic) incurred by a country, and those gained by its leadership. Also, there are different perceptions on what constitutes "benefits".

Well, the African "refugees" are caused by Euro and American interference in Africa for decades, but I have no idea as to how it could be solved, and I doubt the governments have either. That leaves only the symptoms to deal with.

IMO the Syrian refugees are a home grown problem and the west should keep it's beak out of it- there are no "good" sides. Just keep the refugees in the surrounding countries and give as much financial support as possible.