13,000 Migrants Mass At Turkey-Greece Border, Preparing to Rush Europe

Richard Moorhead   |  

Mar 1, 2020

More than ten thousand migrants have massed on Turkey’s border with Greece, hoping to enter the European Union as refugees and asylum seekers. They’ve been enabled by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey has largely prevented massive flows of migrants and so-called refugees from entering continental Europe for the past four years. But the nation is now letting the considerable migrant populations housed within its borders travel to the Greek border as a means to show its displeasure towards the European reaction to its military intervention in Syria.

Greek police could be seen deploying water cannons and other deterrents to stop the mob from infiltrating the nation’s borders. The Greek Army has been deployed to the border to safeguard against large-scale migrant crossings.

Some of the migrants have already attempted crossing to Greece’s island territories in the Aegean Sea, receiving a cold reception from locals who are tired of costly and dangerous boats of migrants arriving in their communities.

Footage of the crowd assembled at the border, just across the Bosphorous Strait in Turkey’s European territory, showed a massive assemblage of mostly young men who could be likened to an army.

Turkey is displeased with Europe’s reaction to a Russian airstrike in Syria that killed 33 Turkish soldiers. They’re also unhappy with what they see as insufficient economic aid from Europe to assist in housing migrants and refugees.

It’s unclear why Turkey has no long-term plans to integrate the migrants, who come from a wide variety of mostly troubled Middle Eastern nations, such as Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. After all, the general public in countries such as Britain and Germany have been consistently told that migrants from troubled Middle Eastern nations represent future doctors and lawyers and are required for future economic growth.