Category Archives: Turkey

With its heavy-handed response to the border crisis, Europe is making a bad situation worse | Daniel Trilling

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Turkey’s decision not to stop migrants crossing its borders will force politicians to reveal what they plan to do with them

“April 4th, 1984. Last night to the flicks,” runs a diary entry by Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. “One very good one of a ship full of refugees being bombed somewhere in the Mediterranean. Audience much amused by shots of a great huge fat man trying to swim away […] audience shouting with laughter when he sank.” Orwell is so often reduced to cliche, but this quote has been stuck in my mind since footage was circulated online this week of a Greek coastguard boat apparently trying to capsize a migrant dinghy in the narrow strip of sea between Turkey and Greece’s Aegean islands.

Related: Turkey deploys 1,000 police at Greek border as tensions rise

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Turkey claims killing 21 Syrian troops in retaliation for death of two soldiers

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As Turkey-Russia ceasefire is agreed, Ankara says it acted after two of its troops were killed by Syrian government forces in Idlib

The Turkish military has killed 21 Syrian troops after two Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib earlier, the state news agency reported on Friday, citing the Turkish defence ministry.

On Thursday, two soldiers were killed and three others were wounded after Syrian government forces opened fire in the north-western Syrian town of Idlib, the Turkish defence ministry said.

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Aerial footage shows queues near Greek-Turkish border – video

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Hundreds of refugees and migrants were queuing and camping near the Turkish-Greek border on Thursday. This footage was shot from a Turkish government helicopter while the interior minister, Süleyman Soylu, was inspecting the region. Last week Turkey announced it would no longer abide by a 2016 deal with the EU to reduce illegal migration

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Brawl erupts in Turkish parliament over military involvement in Syria – video

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A fight broke out in Turkey's parliament on Wednesday during tense discussions over the country's military involvement in north-west Syria. The clash started when Engin Özkoç of the opposition Republican People's party took the rostrum. During a news conference shortly before, Özkoç had called President Erdoğan 'dishonourable, ignoble, low and treacherous' and accused him of irresponsibility for sending troops into a conflict without air cover

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The humanitarian crisis in Turkey shines a light on Europe’s failures | Elif Shafak

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Turkey was once on course to join the EU. The desperate refugees trapped on its border reflect a broken relationship

To understand Europe, we need to look more carefully at its borders. Too often, the debates on the future of Europe focus on a few leading nations and overlook the periphery. Yet the fate of the continent is deeply and inevitably connected with what’s happening along its fringes. And there is no bordering country that has as complex and confusing a relationship with Europe as Turkey – it was, after all, the Ottoman empire that was first referred to as “the sick man of Europe”.

Related: Migration: EU praises Greece as 'shield' after Turkey opens border

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Putin and Erdoğan in last-ditch talks to secure Syria ceasefire

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Russian and Turkish leaders will try to hammer out yet another deal to stabilise Idlib

A summit between the leaders of Turkey and Russia on Thursday may be the last chance to work out a deal that avoids further calamity in north-west Syria.

Faced with increasing military losses in Idlib province and a potential wave of people fleeing the fighting, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is eager for a ceasefire – and Vladimir Putin is ready to bargain.

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Germany tweets to deter Syrian refugees, fearing ‘repeat of 2015’

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Government says it will support Greece as thousands of people arrive at Turkish border

The German government – anxious about the political consequences of a “repeat of 2015” – is tolerating Greece’s decision to suspend asylum claims at its borders and has launched a social media campaign to deter Syrian refugees from embarking on a journey to central Europe.

About 12,500 people are estimated to be waiting on the Turkish side of the Greek border after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Saturday that he would open his country’s borders for refugees fleeing the nine-year war in Syria to cross over into Europe.

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‘Now we don’t have to be afraid’: Syrian family who made it to safety in Turkey

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Turkish border with Syria remains closed to most but some have escaped horrors of Idlib

In a video shot by her father, three-year-old Salwa listens intently to the rumble of military hardware in the distance. “Is it a plane or a shell?” he asks as they sit together on the sofa. “Shell!” she shouts, giggling hysterically when it explodes.

Turning the sounds of airstrikes and shelling into a game is how Abdullah Mohammed, 32, protected his daughter from the trauma of Syria’s war. Last week the family made it to the safety of Antakya, just over the Turkish border. Dancing around her new home in a pink princess dress, for the first time in her life Salwa doesn’t have to listen to the sounds of the conflict.

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Migration: EU praises Greece as ‘shield’ after Turkey opens border

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Bloc leaders announce financial support as UN questions Athens’ suspension of asylum applications

European Union leaders have given a show of support for Athens, describing Greece as Europe’s “shield” in deterring migrants, despite questions from the UN about breaches of international refugee law.

Four EU leaders met the Greek prime minister, Kyriákos Mitsotákis, at the border town of Orestiada on Tuesday, near where Greek police have been using teargas to deter hundreds of migrants from attempting to cross from Turkey.

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Greek coastguards in altercation with migrant dinghy as Turkey opens border – video report

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Greek coastguards had been filmed pushing away a dinghy with poles and opening fire into water in an effort to block migrants from entering the country. Thousands of people have been trying to enter Greece by land and by sea after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced Turkey would no longer stop migrants from crossing into Europe through the Turkish-Greek border

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Four years after Turkey deal, EU no closer to new asylum system

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Distracted leaders have been unable to agree on how to ease the burden on frontline states

It was said to be the moment when the European Union lost its political innocence. Nearly four years ago, in March 2016, EU leaders signed a deal with Turkey aimed at preventing asylum seekers from travelling to Europe.

The pact was “celebrated by people who are dancing on the grave of refugee protection”, said the Europe boss of Amnesty International. But the realpolitik worked: the number of people arriving on the Greek islands from Turkey dropped drastically from a peak of 7,000 a day to a few hundred, although numbers began creeping up again in 2019.

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Child dies off Lesbos in first fatality since Turkey opened border

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Four-year-old dies as crisis sparked by Turkey’s decision to open its borders continues

The first victim of the worsening crisis that has engulfed Greece following Turkey’s abrupt decision to open its borders to thousands of refugees desperate to reach Europe has been confirmed with the death of a child in waters off Lesbos.

Authorities said a four-year-old Syria boy died early on Monday when an inflatable dinghy carrying people from the Turkish coast capsized off the island. “Doctors rushed to save the child but it was too late,” a police source on Lesbos said.

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Clashes as thousands gather at Turkish border to enter Greece

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EU border agency Frontex on high alert as Turkish president keeps crossings open

Migrants trying to reach Europe have clashed violently with Greek riot police as Turkey claimed more than 76,000 people were now heading for the EU as a result of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s decision to open the Turkish side of the border.

Officers fired teargas at the migrants, some of whom threw stones and wielded metal bars as they sought to force their way into Greece at the normally quiet crossing in the north-eastern town of Kastanies.

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Erdoğan says border will stay open as Greece tries to repel influx

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Turkish leader claims 18,000 people have crossed into EU but some are met with teargas

Thousands of migrants may be in no man’s land between Turkey and Greece after Ankara opened its western borders, sparking chaotic scenes as Greek troops attempted to prevent refugees from entering Europe en masse.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, claimed 18,000 migrants had crossed the border, without immediately providing supporting evidence, but many appear to have been repelled by Greek border patrols firing teargas and stun grenades.

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Refugees arrive on Lesbos as Turkey opens border – video

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Three boats of refugees have landed on Lesbos in the last 24 hours as the island prepares for an influx of people after Turkey announced it was opening its borders. Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered in the Turkish city of Edirne, which borders Bulgaria and Greece

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Refugees in Istanbul rush to board coach to reach Turkish border to Europe – video

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Dozens of Syrian refugees were seen rushing to board coaches in Turkey's Istanbul on Friday after Ankara decided to open its border to Europe. The move comes after an airstrike on Thursday killed at least 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria's Idlib province. Fearing the window to leave Turkey would soon close, some of the 3.6 million Syrians living in the country have begun to vacate

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Russia and Turkey’s next moves will define the Syrian war’s end

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Neither side can back down from proxy standoff, but Russia holds whip hand in Idlib

For more than three years, Russia and Turkey have been shadow boxing on the soils of northern Syria. In the past three weeks, the stalking has turned to shooting; the Turks aiming their guns at the Moscow-allied Assad regime, and the Russians increasingly swinging their turrets towards the Turkish military.

In a war fought largely through proxies, any direct conflict between main players was considered highly dangerous and, until Thursday night, unlikely. But after the deaths of at least 30 Turkish troops – most likely the consequence of a Russian airstrike – both sides are in a standoff from which neither can afford to back down.

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Greece and Bulgaria crack down on Turkish borders as refugees arrive

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Move appears designed to put pressure on Europe to support Turkey’s Idlib operation

Hundreds of refugees in Turkey began arriving at the country’s borders with Greece and Bulgaria on Friday after Ankara suddenly indicated it would no longer block their passage to Europe.

The move prompted both neighbouring nations to shore up their borders as their governments insisted they would not allow anyone to enter. Greek police used smoke grenades at one border crossing, while Bulgaria sent an extra 1,000 troops to its frontier with Turkey.

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Syria: 21 dead as targets including schools and nurseries bombed in Idlib

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Six schools and two nurseries reported targets of airstrikes by Assad regime and Russia

Eight school facilities have been bombed in Idlib province, in Syria, in a single day as the battle for control of the country’s last opposition stronghold intensifies.

The attacks came despite warnings that the violence has already led to the worst humanitarian crisis in the Syrian war to date.

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Idlib’s despair won’t end bloodshed in Syria. It will provoke a rebel fightback | Hassan Hassan

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Freed from the need to defend their last stronghold, the jihadists there will be well placed to regroup and take the struggle underground

Outsiders can be forgiven for being tired of the Syrian conflict. After all, the violence has lasted for nearly a decade and the worst chapters – for outsiders, at least – have come and gone: Islamic State (Isis) seized almost half the country, in addition to one-third of Iraq and launched a global network of terror in 2014. But the world has now caught its breath and the threat has all but ended. Refugees, too, flooded Europe some years ago but the influx has been contained.

Also, expert warnings about a resurgence of violence or extremism did not materialise and the return of state control seems to be the steady trajectory of the conflict despite persistent problems. Most of the country is currently under the control of either the regime, Turkey or the United States-backed Kurdish forces in eastern Syria. Even in the Kurdish zone, many would concede that it might be just a matter of time before these areas are recaptured by Damascus, even without much fighting, if and when the US eventually ends its presence there.

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