Turkey's foreign minister criticizes Greece, EU over 'refugee push backs'

Photo: AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

Greece and the European Union (EU) were responsible for the 19 refugees who were found frozen to death near the shared border of Turkey and Greece last week, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

"As much as Greece, the EU is also to blame, because we know how Turkey would be criticized if it did one-tenth of this," Çavuşoğlu told a joint news conference with his counterpart from Finland, Pekka Haavisto, in Ankara, Turkey's capital.

"But on the contrary, Greece gets support in this regard and they have an excuse that 'Greece protects the borders of the EU,' whereas the borders of Europe start from Turkey in the east and south," the minister added.

Çavuşoğlu said the migrants' deaths are part of a "pattern by Greece."

"Unfortunately Greece has continued its pushback policy by openly violating human rights in violation of international law," he said, referring to thousands of asylum seekers pushed back by Greece, endangering their lives in the process.

"In the middle of the Aegean Sea, many immigrants lost their lives because of these pushbacks, even because Greece skewered these boats and pierced them with guns."

These criticisms have nothing to do with bilateral relations, said Çavuşoğlu, adding that such acts have become Greece's state policy, aided by the EU border agency Frontex.

Ankara says the refugees found in Edirne, northwestern Turkey, were pushed back by Greece's border security forces, pointing out that the refugees were stripped of their belongings, clothes and shoes. Athens denies the accusations. (AS/VK)