The clashes between migrants and the Greek police, which have been occurring frequently since Turkey began allowing migrants to cross its territory at the end of February, reached a new intensity on Wednesday.
Migrants again attacked Greek officers during the night, but this time used incendiary Molotov cocktails, which set fire to the border fence in the Evros region, according to a report by Remix News.
Local media reports indicate that the migrants’ attacks were being supported by the Turkish security forces, and that in addition to using firebombs, the migrants employed tear gas which they had obtained from the Turks. They used this in an attempt to distract law enforcement while they pulled down the fence. Greek forces responded with tear gas of their own.
The Evros River has become the flashpoint in this latest migrant crisis. On Monday, Bulgaria opened one of its dams to raise the Evros River’s water level in an attempt to make it more difficult for migrants to cross, as reported by Voice of Europe.
Greece has reported that 348 migrants have been arrested since the latest crisis began, and that its police have prevented over 44,000 others from illegally entering the European Union’s Schengen Zone. Several other countries, including Austria and Poland, have sent their own officers to reinforce the Greek border force.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was scheduled to go to Greece on Thursday to address the emergency, but announced on Wednesday that she was cancelling due to the coronavirus outbreak.
In view of the evolving situation in Europe related to #COVID19 and in agreement with the Greek PM @kmitsotakis, I have decided to postpone my trip to Athens tomorrow. I will be focusing on launching the EU coordination efforts announced yesterday.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 11, 2020
Since the migrant crisis began in 2015, Turkey has frequently used its ability to stop migrants from approaching Europe as a bargaining chip for coercing financial aid and political favors out of the European Union. Turkish President Recep Erdoğan’s recent declaration that he was “opening the gates” to migrants is an attempt to force Europe into supporting Turkey in its conflict with Syria.
Talks between Erdoğan and EU representatives failed on Monday when the Turkish President abruptly left the meeting, as reported by Voice of Europe. Erdoğan advised Greece to open its borders since “those people will not stay in Greece permanently,” and will “cross into other countries in Europe.”
More recently, Erdogan has also demanded visa-free travel for Turkish citizens from the EU in exchange for stopping the migrants.
Greece has announced that it would not accept any asylum applications for one month. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees criticized their decision.
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This is an act of war by Turkey and so Greece must act with extreme prejudice. War is coming.
Time for regime change in Brussels. Ursula von der Leyen and her fellow communists in Brussels have appeased the Turkish beast for too long by allowing the lunatic in Ankara to extort billions of EU taxpayers money to buy political favours. The traitors in Brussels have bled Christian Greece white while filling the treasury in Ankara. They have shown their bitter hatred of Christian countries in Europe while promoting the mortal enemy of Christian Europe, Islamist Turkey. It has always been the plan of the traitors in Brussels to use Turkey to destroy Christian Europe by flooding Europe with Muslims, this is why Brussels has enshrined open borders in EU Law.