Greece’s land borders in its northeastern region of Evros have been under siege since February 28 when Turkish officials announced that they would no longer hold back asylum seekers from illegally crossing the Greek-Turkish border after Ankara falsely informed the mostly Middle Eastern, Afghan, and sub-Saharan African migrants that the Greek border was open.
After four days of continuous operations, More than 30.000 attempts to violate Greece’s territorial integrity by illegally crossing its borders have been attempted in the last four day. During that time, there have been numerous clashes between the Greek police and the Hellenic Armed Forces with the asylum seekers, many of whom have told the foreign media that they were bussed to the border by the Turks.
In response to the crisis, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis invited high-ranking EU officials to Greece’s border region so that they could personally witness how the EU’s borders have come under threat after the latest move by the Turkish government. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen; Council President Charles Michel; David Sassoli, the President of the European Parliament; Andrej Plenkovic, the Croatian Prime Minister; the Greek-born Vice President of the Commission Margaritis Schinas arrived on Tuesday in Evros and met with Mitsotakis then flew via helicopter to review situation that is unfolding on the long Greek-Turkish border.
Mitsotakis’ wanted to provide the EU delegation with visceral and irrefutable evidence that Turkey is actively taking the role as “a smuggler”, using its vast security and military apparatus to put pressure on both Greece and the EU by flooding the latter with tens of thousands of migrants.
For Mitsotakis, it has become evident that Turkey is unilaterally tearing apart the remains of the Joint EU-Turkey Statement by refusing to halt the flow of refugees and migrants into the EU on both its land and the sea borders.
“This is no longer a refugee problem. This is a blatant attempt by Turkey to use desperate people to promote its geopolitical agenda and to divert attention from the horrible situation in Syria”, Mitsotakis told reporters in the Evros town of Orestiada during a joint press conference with the EU heads. “Europe will not be blackmailed by Turkey over the refugee issue. We stand ready to support Turkey in dealing with its refugee problem and find a solution to the Syria conundrum, but not under these circumstances. My duty is to protect the sovereignty of my country. Unfortunately, Turkey has turned into an official migrant smuggler,” Mitsotakis added while speaking in Greek.
Mitsotakis also called on the European Union’s leadership to take action and offer tangible solutions to the common problem of migration after seeing first-hand evidence of Turkey’s actions, or what Mitsotakis called “a wake-up call” for the European Union. The Greek Prime Minister also added that Greece will continue to do whatever is necessary to safeguard its borders.
Both von der Leyen and Michel agreed that the EU needs to fully support Greece’s efforts as the Greek borders “are the borders of the EU”. Von der Leyen announced that the EU will support Greece both with more funding to the tune of €350 million as well as more equipment from Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency.
The heads of several European institutions have called upon Turkey to uphold the Joint Statement that was signed in 2016. The prospect of Ankara actually taking their advice appears slim, however, as Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened several times in the past to flood the border region with the millions of refugees that reside in Turkey if the EU fails to meet his demands on a whole host of issues.
