Turkey’s president on Wednesday said that the Greek authorities’ alleged mistreatment of migrants at its border was comparable to “what the Nazis did,” and said he would denounce Greece’s action at international platforms.
In his weekly address to his ruling party’s legislators, Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said there would be no change to his government’s policy of allowing migrants to cross into Europe, until the European Union fulfills obligations set out in a 2016 Turkish-EU deal that helped stem a migrant crisis.
Thousands of migrants massed on Turkey’s border with Greece, after the Turkish government said last month that it would no longer try to contain migrants on its territory.
To prevent the crossings, Athens deployed riot police and border guards who in many cases used tear gas, flash grenades and water cannons. Several clashes have erupted between the migrants and the Greek forces. Greece says that Turkish security forces fired tear gas from the other side of the border at Greek officers.
Erdogan said Greece’s actions have resulted in four migrants’ deaths and that around 1,000 were injured. Greece denies accusations of mistreatment.
“There is no difference with what the Nazis did and the images from the border with Greece,” Erdogan said. “To open fire, fire tear gas and use boiling water on innocent people whose only aim is to save their lives and build a better future for their children is barbaric in the true meaning of the word.”
In Athens, Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Erdogan was “constantly trying to undermine the climate with such kinds of statements.” He said the best answer would be to quote the Central Board of Jewish Communities’s response to a Turkish official’s comparison of Greece to Auschwitz that the situations have nothing to do with the Holocaust and that such comparisons shouldn’t be made.
“We continue to do our job. Our job is the protection of the Greek and the European borders,” Petsas said. “We are saying to everyone that they mustn’t try coming in through the window. There is a door. Whoever is entitled to protection can knock on it and receive the protection they are entitled to by international law. But they will not enter through the window.”
Meanwhile, additional forces arrived from Cyprus, Austria and Poland to help Greece patrol the border with Turkey, said Panagiotis Charelas, head of the Greek Federation of Border Police.
