EU High Representative Josep Borrell and Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic will be in Ankara today and tomorrow. for high-level meetings ”with the Turkish authorities and to discuss the escalation in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, the humanitarian consequences for the population, and the situation of Syrian refugees in Turkey. This was announced by the European External Action Service (Seae) in a press release.
Borrell goes to Ankara before the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers (Gymnich) and the extraordinary foreign council, in Zagreb, on 5 and 6 March.
Syrian issue
"As we have stopped the terrorist groups of Daesh, Pkk and Feto, the Syrian tyrannical regime will have the same fate“, The Turkish president said, referring also to the PKK, considered a terrorist organization by the Ankara government and to the movement led by Fetuallah Gulen (Feto), which the Turkish government considers the mastermind of the failed coup in July 2016.
Speaking openly to Russia and Iran, supporters of Damascus, Erdogan claimed that he had no hostility towards them in Syria and that he wanted to guarantee the security of his country and put an end to a humanitarian crisis triggered by the movement of millions of Syrians to Turkey . After starting the operation Spring shieldErdogan recalled that his government initially favored the diplomatic path. "We only begin to show our strength to those who think that our sensitivity to avoid bloodshed is a weakness“, The president said during a meeting of his party, the AKP. "Those responsible for this situation are those who felt able to threaten us. It is our duty to avenge our soldiers ”. Erdogan then warned: “Those who threaten to attack our observation points in Idlib have not yet learned their lesson".
Borders issue with Greece
"They thought I was bluffing". With these words the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, returned to talk about the opening of the borders with the EU, inviting Europe to "take charge of your part of the burden". "If the West does not do its part we will open the borders, I had said so and it was not a bluff as they thought. After the opening of the borders they called me asking me to close everything, I replied that that period had come to an end, that it was time to take on one's share of this burden. The number of migrants who have passed has gone up and will go up again“, Said Erdogan, who later announced that he will speak with the Bulgarian premier Boyko Borisov and to follow with the German chancellor Angela Merkel.
The chancellor's comment from Berlin was immediate Angela Merkel"The Turkish president does not feel sufficiently supported at the moment, but with all due understanding for President Recep Tayyp Erdogan it is completely unacceptable that this be resolved at the expense of the refugees. These are put in a situation where they are forced to go to the border and basically end up in a dead end.