Turkey's Erdogan threatened to flood Europe with migrants: Greek website

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Source: Reuters

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan threatened in November to flood Europe with migrants if European Union leaders did not offer him a better deal to help manage the Middle East refugee crisis, a Greek news website said on Monday.

Publishing what it said were minutes of a tense meeting last November, the euro2day.gr financial news website revealed deep mutual irritation and distrust in talks between Erdogan and the EU's two top officials, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk.

The EU officials were trying to enlist Ankara's help in stemming an influx of Syrian refugees and migrants into Europe. Over a million arrived last year, most crossing the narrow sea gap between Turkey and islands belonging to EU member Greece.

Tusk's European Council and Juncker's European Commission declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the document, and Erdogan's office in Ankara had no immediate comment.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-eu-turkey-idUSKCN0VH1R0

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1. Turkey's Erdogan "taunted EU leaders" over migrant deal

Europe’s torrid relations with Turkey over the migrant crisis were apparently laid bare yesterday after the leaked minutes of a meeting appeared to show Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, openly mocking senior European leaders.

The stormy meeting on October 5 last year came as European leaders, led by Jean-claude Juncker, the European Commission president, tried to strike a 3bn euro deal with Turkey to stem the flow of migrants crossing into Europe.

In extraordinary exchanges, Mr Erdogan appears to taunt Mr Juncker, saying that Turkey does not want the European Union’s money and flatly rejecting the offer of 3bn euros over two years.

“Erdogan said that Turkey didn’t need the EU’s money anyway, ‘We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria any time and we can put the refugees on buses’”, threatened Mr Erdogan according to the minutes published by the Greek website Euro2day.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/12147167/Turkeys-Erdogan-taunted-EU-leaders-over-migrant-deal.html

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2. Turkey blackmailed EU: either €3bn per year & EU accession or we send buses full with refugees to Eu

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In addition, Ankara threatened, that if the EU does not link the refugee issue to Turkey’s EU accession then it would:

1. Send buses full of refugees to Europe via Greece and Bulgaria and will let 10,000-15,000 refugees drown on its shores.

2. Turkey does not accept the 3 billion euro for two years he had agreed with and wants 3 billion a year at least, otherwise there will be no agreement.

3. Requests opening all accession funds soon and non instructions from the European Commission.

4. The European Commission deliberately delayed the publication of Turkey’s progress report, at the same Erdogan’s request to help him win the election.

http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2016/02/08/turkey-blackmailed-eu-either-e3bn-per-year-eu-accession-or-we-send-buses-full-with-refugees-to-europe/

[MowCowWhoHow III]

3. doc drop

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4. +1. nt

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5. Boots on the ground

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Washington has been clear all along that there will not be American boots on the ground in Syria. The same Washington, however, was the mentor of the Sunni alliance led by the Saudis to fight Muslim jihadist, Salafist extremism, as if Wahhabism in power in the holiest land in Islam is much different in essence than that the practiced by the former.

Could Syria be a second Yemen? Could the Saudis – aligned with Turkey or not – fight a proxy war with Iran or worse, Russia, while it has so far been unable to achieve much in the proxy war with Iran in Yemen? Or, in other words, the Saudis may have the money and the most sophisticated weapon systems, but what is the size of the land forces Riyadh might want to deploy in Syria? Such a war would not last a few months. Having logistical capability and the most advanced warfare won’t mean much once the body bags start to come back home. Would Turkish society accept Syria becoming another trouble spot sending body bags filled with the remains of loved ones to Turkish towns and cities? Would the Saudis fight such a war? Could such a war be continued with a legionnaire army?

Turkey successfully succumbed to a plot by Russia. At the cost of a fighter plane and the life of one pilot, Russia has successfully closed down Syrian airspace to Turkish jets, pushed Turkey out of the country while presented itself as a legitimate, “invited” foreign presence. The latest operations by Russia and the Syrian regime along the Turkish border, sending thousands more refugees to Turkey and the inability of Ankara to do anything other than issue empty condemnation statements, demonstrate how badly the Syrian policy of Turkey has collapsed.

Lofty statements, threats and the like can no longer be the valid currency that might save the day as the king now has no clothes. If in order to come out of the mess, let alone join in and becoming a physical part of it, Turkey opts to allow a Saudi-led Sunni army to enter Syria through Turkish territory, it will become partner of a bigger mess.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/boots-on-the-ground.aspx?pageID=449&nID=94859&NewsCatID=425

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6. Syria conflict 'could send 600,000 more refugees' to Turkish border

The fierce fighting in Aleppo province could send a fresh wave of 600,000 Syrian refugees to the border of Turkey, the country's deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmus, warned yesterday.

As 35,000 Syrians who have fled the area remained camped along the closed border last night, Mr Kurtulmus said that figure could rise dramatically.

"The worst-case scenario that could happen in this region in the short term would be a new influx of 600,000 refugees at the Turkish frontier," he said.

His comments came as Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, visited Turkey to discuss the refugee crisis amid criticism of its handling of the issue.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12147288/Syria-conflict-could-send-600000-more-refugees-to-Turkish-border.html

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7. Gaddafi did the same thing back in the day. Europe paid him and it is paying Erdogan.

It is disgusting. But expecting Turkey (or Jordan or Lebanon) to handle millions of refugees without adequate help is not realistic either.

Millions of refugees. And we are all sympathetic as long as they don't show up in our country. The popular GOP solution seems to be to keep them in "Muslim" countries which, perhaps not coincidentally, are nowhere near Americans or Europeans. The Atlantic Ocean serves as a much better 'wall' than the Mediterranean is proving to be.

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8. Realism hasn't been one of their strong points for some time now.

They have good reason in their own history to know better too, but these posturing buffoons don't know about much but their own egos.

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9. K & R for visibility of this N/T