Police on Greece’s border with Turkey on Wednesday used tear gas and water cannons to repel hundreds of refugees and migrants clustered on the Turkish side who attempted to break down a border fence and enter Greece.
The evening clashes took place near the Kastanies border crossing.
Greek police said that Turkish authorities also fired tear gas at Greek forces, and migrants later lit fires on the Turkish side of the fence.
Similar clashes occurred before dawn on Wednesday, lasting for about two hours.
An estimated 2,000 people are still camped out on the Greek-Turkish border, weeks after Turkey declared its borders to Europe open, and encouraged migrants and refugees living in the country to try crossing into EU member Greece.
Tens of thousands of people headed to the frontier, despite Greece’s insistence that its eastern border, which is also the EU’s external border, was shut.
The move came after months of threats by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he would allow millions of refugees into Europe unless the bloc provided more support for refugee care in Turkey.
The EU says it is adhering to a 2016 deal with Turkey under which it provides billions of dollars in funds in return for Turkey caring for more than 3.5 million refugees from Syria.
On Wednesday, Turkey declared that it was closing down its six land and sea border crossings with Greece and Bulgaria in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19.
However, a senior Turkish official said that the measure did not amount to an end of Ankara’s policy of not preventing refugees from leaving Turkey.
The borders were sealed to people and not the transportation of goods, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with Turkish government protocol.
The violence on the border came hours after Erdogan on Tuesday held a four-way videoconference with the leaders of France, Germany and Britain to discuss the refugee crisis.
A statement from Erdogan’s office said the four leaders also discussed ways of resolving the Syria conflict and providing humanitarian aid in Syria’s troubled Idlib Province. It did not immediately provide further details.
The teleconference between Erdogan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was arranged after the European leaders canceled plans to travel to Istanbul due to the coronavirus crisis.
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
BEIJING FORUM: ‘So-called freedom of navigation advocated by certain countries outside the region challenges the norms of international relations,’ the minister said Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) yesterday denounced “hegemonic logic and acts of bullying” during remarks at a Beijing forum that were full of thinly veiled references to the US. Organizers said that about 1,800 representatives from 100 countries, including political, military and academic leaders, were in Beijing for the Xiangshan Forum. The three-day event comes as China presents itself as a mediator of fraught global issues including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Addressing attendees at the opening ceremony, Dong warned of “new threats and challenges” now facing world peace. “While the themes of the times — peace and development —
RSS