Europe will not "give in to the migratory blackmail" exercised by Turkey and its borders will remain "closed" to migrants sent by this country, assured Wednesday the head of French diplomacy Jean-Yves Le Drian.
"We will keep the borders closed"
"I would like to point out that the migratory pressure which is today at the gates of Europe - from Greece, a little from Bulgaria, a little from Cyprus - is organized by the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to constitute an element of blackmail towards the European Union, "he said during a questioning of the government in the Senate. "The European Union will not yield to this blackmail (...) The borders of Greece and the Schengen area are closed and we will make sure that they remain closed, that things are clear!", Added the French Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that a resolution to the migration crisis required European support in Ankara, Syria, when new clashes broke out between refugees and police on the Greek border. In addition to the 3.6 million Syrian refugees present in Turkey, nearly a million of them, fleeing the offensive of President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian ally in Idleb in north-western Syria, crowd along the Turkish border on the Syrian side.
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"We are going towards a real cataclysm"
"The current crisis in northern Syria is dramatic, we are heading towards a real cataclysm," said Jean-Yves Le Drian, pointing to the responsibility of the Damascus regime in this situation, constituting possible "war crimes". . "In this area out of the three million inhabitants, you have 1.5 million refugees who will not cross into Turkey since the border there is really closed and who are in a state of destitution, of considerable distress", has t -he says.
"They are going up towards the Turkish border. Many inhabitants are refugees for the second time and displaced with the cold, hunger, epidemics, the resurgence of violence against women and girls," he added. "So much so that the Secretary-General of the United Nations has requested that an investigation be made to condemn the deliberate air strikes on civilian targets such as hospitals or schools and that this could constitute, if it is sufficiently documented, what we are going to tackle (...) war crimes, "he said.