Turkey-Greece Border Crisis (2020)

The early days of March, 2020 witnessed a concerted effort by purported refugees, facilitated if not engineered by the Turkish state of Tayyip Erdogan, to breach the border with Greece and force thei mass entry to Europe. The surrounding developments are interesting and astounding, and deserve a better introduction.

Sources, General
Greek, Turkish Police Fire Tear Gas as Migrant Border Crisis Deepens March 4, 2020, at 4:13 a.m. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-03-04/greek-troops-fire-tear-gas-at-migrants-gathering-again-at-turkish-border Greek and Turkish riot police deployed on their shared border fired tear gas on Wednesday as hundreds of migrants tried again to cross into Greece, amid an escalating war of words between Athens and Ankara about what was happening. Turkey accused Greek forces of shooting dead one migrant and wounding five others, a charge strongly denied by Greece, which said Turkish police were using tear gas to help the migrants illegally cross onto its territory.

Greece and the EU accuse Turkey of deliberately goading the migrants to cross the border as a way of pressuring Brussels into offering more money or supporting Ankara's geopolitical aims in the Syrian conflict. Turkey, which already hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees and faces another influx from an upsurge in fighting in northwest Syria, says it cannot take in any more and complains that EU aid falls well short of what is needed for the refugees.

Turkey: Elite police going to stop Greece’s migrant pushback Suzan Fraser, The Boston Globe (via MSN news) March 6, 2020 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/turkey-elite-police-going-to-stop-greece-e2-80-99s-migrant-pushback/ar-BB10O0QY Turkey is sending elite special operations police to the border to stop Greek officers from driving back people who try to cross over to Europe, Turkish authorities said Thursday.

Some 4-5,000 would-be border-cossers were massed at the Pazarkule border crossing, opposite the Greek village of Kastanies. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu visited this scene on the 5th and said 1,000 officers from the tactical units of the Police Special Operation Department would be deployed to the Turkey-Greece border to counter the Greek officers working to repel migrants and refugees. “As of this morning... we are bringing 1,000 fully equipped special forces police (along) the Meric river system to prevent the pushbacks,” Soylu said. “With the help of Zodiac boats, they will [stop] those who mistreat people.” Soylu asserted that Greece violated international conventions by using force to stop about 4,900 migrants from getting across the border. Soylu said: “It is a border gate. They are obliged to take them in. They are obliged to take in asylum-seekers,” the minister said. But he added the migrants were not obliged to use the official border crossing and could cross anywhere along the roughly 125-mile-long border.

Greek authorities said that from Saturday morning until Thursday evening, they had thwarted 36,649 attempts to enter Greece and made 252 arrests.

Photos, videos

 * Erdogan's second front - Cassad, March 2, 2020
 * Assault on Greek wall: Turkish Hizir Ates trying to pull the border fence down, via Cassad, March 7, 2020