HATAY, Turkey, Mar 1 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that, over 18,000 irregular migrants have so far crossed the Greek border, after Turkey decided to open its border gates for the refugees.
“The figure could go up to 25,000-30,000 today,” Erdogan said, at a meeting in Istanbul.
Turkey on Thursday announced that it would no longer stop refugees from going to Europe, after a deadly airstrike against Turkish troops in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, the last rebel-held stronghold.
The death toll in the airstrike against the Turkish soldiers increased to 36 from 33, Erdogan revealed.
“We will keep the doors open for refugees in future process,” Erdogan noted, urging the European Union to keep its promise about the financial aid to Turkey.
Erdogan and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, recently agreed on an additional fund worth 25 million euros (27.6 million U.S. dollars), but Turkey has not yet received the amount of the fund.
Around 1.5 million Syrian refugees, fleeing from the bombardments of Syrian forces in Idlib, have recently flooded towards Turkey’s border with Syria. Turkey is hosting over 3.7 million Syrian refugees in its territory.
“We went to Syria not as a guest of Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, but as a guest of the Syrian people,” Erdogan said, noting Turkey has no intention to leave the area unless the Syrian people said “it is over.”
Erdogan noted that, he told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to get out of the way and “leave Turkish forces alone, to fight with the Syrian government.”– NNN-ANADOLU
