Austrian Chancellor Kurz blasts Turkey for migration ‘attack’ against EU

Europe has been put to the test after Turkey provided free passage for waves of migrants heading westward, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said, describing Ankara’s move as an “attack on the EU.”

The latest move by Turkey to allow migrants to leave its territory over the weekend is an attack “on the European Union and Greece,” and also a “test for the EU,” Kurz said on Tuesday.

If European countries cave in to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s pressure, then 13,000 migrants desperately waiting at the EU border will only be “the beginning,” the Austrian chancellor warned.

According to Kurz, the migrants gathered at the Greek border didn’t come from war-ravaged parts of Syria – their exodus was “deliberately organized” by Turkey.

Erdogan himself doesn’t care for refugees because he wants to employ them “as a bargaining chip, a weapon and a pressure tool,” Kurz said. He also warned that a new migration crisis similar to that of 2015 should be averted “at all costs,” while calling on EU members to resist Turkey’s pressure together.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, the leader of the country (Germany) which has taken in over a million asylum seekers in recent years, expressed a similar opinion a short while back. While acknowledging that “Turkey is facing a very big challenge regarding Idlib,” she said it is unacceptable that Erdogan is expressing his dissatisfaction “on the back of the refugees.”

Germany’s former defense minister and the European Commission’s current leader, Ursula von der Leyen, said that allowing potentially millions of migrants to enter Europe “cannot be an answer or solution” to Turkey’s problems in Syria.

Meanwhile, Greek authorities struggling to hold back the wave at their borders have described it as “an invasion.” Greek police fired tear gas at migrants attempting to storm the border fence, while the coast guard tried to stop refugee dinghies by pushing them outside the country’s southern islands.

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