DIRNE, Turkey (AP)
— Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to be in Brussels on
Monday for a one-day working visit, his office said amid a charged
conflict between Turkey and the European Union over migrants and
refugees.
A statement from
Erdogan’s office said he would travel to Brussels on March 9. The
statement did not specify where he would be during his one-day visit or
the nature of the work taking him to the Belgian capital, but the
European Union’s headquarters are in Brussels.
Erdogan announced said last week that Turkey, which already houses more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees, would no
longer be Europe’s gatekeeper and declared that its previously guarded
borders with Europe are now open.
he move alarmed EU countries, which are still enduring political fallout from a wave of mass migration five years ago.
Thousands of
migrants headed for Turkey’s land border with Greece after Erdogan’s
government said last week that it would no longer prevent migrants and
refugees from crossing over to EU territory. Greece deployed riot police
and border guards to repel people trying to enter the country from the
sea or by land.
The announcement
came hours after European Union foreign ministers meeting in Croatia on
Friday criticized Turkey, saying it was using the migrants’ desperation
“for political purposes.”
More clashes
erupted Saturday between Greek police and Europe-bound migrants gathered
on the Turkey side of a border crossing near the Greek village of
Kastanies. Like previous confrontations this week officers in Greece
fired tear gas to impede the crowd and Turkish police fired tear gas
back at their Greek counterparts.
A Greek government
statement issued Saturday said that around 600 people, aided by Turkish
army and military police, threw tear gas at the Greek side of the
border overnight. There were several attempts to breach the border
fence, and fires were lit in an attempt to damage the barrier, the
statement said.
“Attempts at
illegal entry into Greek territory were prevented by Greek forces, which
repaired the fence and used sirens and loudspeakers,” the statement
read.
he move alarmed EU countries, which are still enduring political fallout from a wave of mass migration five years ago.
Erdogan has
demanded that Europe shoulder more of the burden of caring for refugees.
But the EU insists it is abiding by a 2016 deal in which it gave Turkey
billions in refugee aid in return for keeping Europe-bound
asylum-seekers on its soil.
In a phone call
with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, Erdogan said the
Turkey-EU migration deal is no longer working and needs to be revised,
according to the Turkish leaders’s office.
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