INTERVIEW
Are Turkey and Russia on the brink of confrontation in Syria? The first is in any case seeking to obtain support from its Western allies in the conflict between it and the Syrian regime in the province of Idlib, and announced Friday that it had reopened its borders to allow migrants to pass. While Greece says it blocked the entry into its territory of nearly 10,000 of them in 24 hours from Turkey on Sunday, İsmail Hakkı Musa, the Turkish ambassador to France, reminded Europe 1 that the regime something had "already warned" Europe that this could happen.
"We are almost alone"
"We have warned, not just today and yesterday, but since the start of the Syrian crisis," recalls the Turkish ambassador to France, "that we can no longer shoulder this burden alone." According to him, some 3.7 million migrants are in Turkey, and more than a million on the way. "It's a lot! And what did we do? We were told 'ah you do this well, we appreciate what you have done ...' But nothing more or very little".
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If the borders are open, does that mean that the agreement, concluded in 2016 between Ankara and Brussels and according to which the Turkish government is committed to fighting illegal crossings, no longer holds? "We signed an agreement with the European Union in 2016, with 4 pillars: migration, finance, customs union, negotiations", details İsmail Hakkı Musa. "The agreement could hold, but for the reasons I have just stated, Europe is not living up to its promises". "What President Erdogan said is that this is another way of expressing the difficulty we have and facing which we are almost alone."
"We don't want any more migratory influx to our borders"
If Turkey has made this decision, it may also be because it is seeking Western support in Syria, where it lost Thursday 33 soldiers in air strikes attributed by Ankara to the Syrian regime, supported by Moscow, against a background of growing tensions in Idlib between Turkish and Syrian forces. Turkey believes that it is unable to cope with a new influx of refugees due to the fighting.
"In Idlib, we lost 34 of our soldiers. What we claim is that we had an agreement with the Russians (...) to preserve this last climbing area that is Idlib. It was to remain a protected area, to secure civilians. We want them to be protected where they are: we no longer want there to be an influx of migrants to our borders; we want a cease-fire in the Syrian theater, to give a chance to the political process ", supports the ambassador. "If Idlib falls, the political process will fall in Syria."
Emmanuel Macron on Saturday called on Turkey and Russia to establish "a lasting cease-fire" in the Idlib region, in separate telephone interviews with Russian presidents and the like, the Elysee said in a statement. He called on Russia to "put an immediate end to the military offensive in the northwest of Syria and to respect international humanitarian law, the protection of civilian populations, personnel and humanitarian access".
The Head of State also expressed his condolences to Turkey and called for "cooperation on the management of migratory flows". Erdogan and Putin are scheduled to meet, "possibly March 5," according to İsmail Hakkı Musa.