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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Turkey pushes migrants into EU after Syria losses

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Turkey pushes migrants into EU after Syria losses
Turkey pushes migrants into EU after Syria losses

Migrants and refugees were seen moving toward Turkey's Greek border on Friday, after Ankara said it would no longer stop the migrants from entering the European Union.

Turkey is furious from the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in the Syria conflict.

Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air power, have launched an assault to capture the northwest, the last remaining territory held by rebels who are backed by Turkey.

With Russo-Turkish diplomacy in tatters, NATO-member Turkey has come closer than ever in the conflict to direct confrontation with Russia on the battlefield.

Opening the border could unleash a repeat of the migration crisis of 2015-2016, when more than a million people arrived by sea in Greece and crossed the Balkans on foot, until Turkey shut its frontier in a deal with the EU.

A million civilians have been displaced since December inside Syria near the Turkish border in desperate winter conditions, perhaps the worst humanitarian crisis of the nine-year war.

Turkey is already home to 3.7 million Syrian refugees and says it cannot take more.

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