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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday (September 5th) issued an ultimatum to Westerners: if they do not help his country create a "security zone" in northern Syria to shelter refugees, it will " open the doors - implied, those of Europe - to the millions of Syrians that Turkey already hosts.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
It is with the Americans that Ankara is currently negotiating the contours of a so-called "security zone" on the Turkish-Syrian border , but it is the Europeans who are the first to be concerned by the ultimatum of the Turkish president.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan would like to return to this area at least one million of the more than three and a half million Syrian refugees in Turkey. If the Westerners do not help it, Ankara therefore threatens once again to question the migration agreement signed with Europe in March 2016.
Ultimatum of Erdogan
" If it works, so much the better. Otherwise, we will be forced to open the doors. So either you support us, or ... sorry to tell you, but we have limits, warned Erdogan. Should we be the only ones to bear this burden? I say it here: the world - starting with the European Union - has not shared with us the burden of Syrian refugees as it should have done. And it's to get that support that we might be forced to do that. "
Beyond the return of refugees to Syria, this security zone would aim to prevent Syrian Kurdish forces from establishing themselves permanently on Turkey's borders. And again, Recep Tayyip Erdogan launches an ultimatum: if the area promised by the United States is not created by the end of the month, the Turkish army could launch a new offensive in Syria.