Erdoğan states that Europe must support Turkey in Syria if it wants to resolve the migration crisis

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that European countries must support Turkey's "solutions" in Syria if they want to resolve the migration crisis.

"If European countries want to resolve the issue, they must support Turkey's efforts for political and humanitarian solutions in Syria," Erdogan said in a televised speech.

"All European countries closing their borders to refugees today, trying to push them back by hitting them and sinking their boats, in fact even shooting at them, are trampling over the universal declaration of human rights," he added.

Erdoğan also criticised Greece's decision to suspend asylum applications, urging the country to comply with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.

This comes after Turkey's ambassador to London, Ümit Yalçın accused the European Union of "betrayal, hypocrisy and selfishness" for failing to uphold an agreement to stem the flow of Syrian refugees and migrants into Europe.

Between Saturday morning and Monday night, some 26,532 migrants were denied entry to Greece via the Evros Greek-Turkish border. During the same period, police reported to have arrested 218 individuals for illegal entry.

The EU has vowed to resist Turkey’s “blackmail” over the issue, and promised €700m to Greece to deal with the crisis, as well as dispatching a rapid intervention team.