Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu spoke about the death of 12 migrants who died near the Greek-Turkish border after being repatriated by the Greek border authorities, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave a follow-up to yesterday's fake news.
Speaking to reporters before leaving for Kiev, Erdoğan said: "Greece's illegal treatment of illegal immigrants continues.
"Turkey points out this situation every time, but both the EU and the rest of the world remain silent.
"Do they intend to take action in the future?
"We cannot swallow the fact that 12 people froze to death and this is not the first time that Greece acts in this way."
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The Turkish president continued to say that: "There were a lot of people whose boats sank, after they were previously punctured, with the consequence that they were sentenced to death.
"The sinking of boats and the sentencing of people to death shows what Greece's attitude is towards these people.
"Unfortunately, this behaviour is also an indicator of Greek culture. And the European Union has always been silent.
"People have remained silent and I do not think anything will change in the future. They made FRONTEX for this purpose, but it's useless.
"They saw 12 people die from the cold and they continue to support Greece."
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He concluded: "We will present the photos we have to any world leader we meet, we will continue to fight."
Yesterday's provocative post by Soylu on the subject:
https://twitter.com/suleymansoylu/status/1488828785722105862
Greece has always denied pushing migrants back after they have crossed from Turkey.
“These migrants never made it to the Greek border,” Mr. Mitarachi, who was in Lille, France, for an informal EU summit on migration, said in a statement. “Any suggestion they did, or indeed were pushed back into Turkey, is utter nonsense.”
Turkey is a major route for migrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East trying to reach European countries and since 2015, when more than a million migrants crossed into Europe, they have been travelling via Greece.
Some come by sea using dinghies and reach Greek islands just miles from Turkey’s shores. Others try to sneak across the land border, which is demarcated by a river.
Recently, smuggling gangs have even been piling migrants into yachts heading from Turkey to Italy. Dozens of migrants have died in the central Aegean last month.
