Assad says Erdogan blackmailing Europe with refugees

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday accused his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan of blackmailing Europe by opening its borders to fleeing refugees.

"Turkey has started to send a second wave of refugees as a form of blackmail to Europe," Assad said in an interview with the Russia 24 channel aired on Syrian state TV. As thousands of desperate refugees gathered on Turkey’s border with European Union member Greece, some EU states and the bloc’s migration commissioner have also accused Turkey of using migrants as a bargaining chip with Brussels to get support for its operations in Syria.

A three-month-old military offensive by Damascus, which Russia has supported with air power, has shrunk Syria’s last rebel bastion and displaced close to a million people. The newly-displaced civilians are massing near the border with Turkey, which already hosts more Syrian refugees than any other country, some 3.6 million people.

The interview was broadcast as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan held talks in Moscow, a summit aimed at securing an elusive ceasefire in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib enclave.

A regime strike last month in Idlib resulted in the deaths of 34 Turkish soldiers, the heaviest loss of personnel for Ankara since its military intervention in 2016.

Turkey’s reply has been bruising, with devastating drone and rocket strikes destroying regime positions and military equipment and killing dozens of government troops.

Erdogan’s move to open the floodgates for refugees seeking to flee to Europe has sent Brussels into a panic, raising the spectre of a repeat of the 2015-2016 migrant crisis.

The Turkish president has rejected accusations he was blackmailing Europe and stressed that "Turkey’s capacity has a limit".

Meanwhile, with tensions growing and accusations flying between Turkey and the EU over an escalating migrant crisis, the head of Nato has warned Europe it must find a way to work with "important ally" Ankara.

EU members accuse Turkey of unleashing a wave of migrants for political ends, in an increasingly bitter confrontation over a new crisis on the Greek border.

Thousands have gathered on the Turkey-Greece frontier since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave migrants the green light to leave for Europe last week, as he seeks more support from the international community in Syria.

The drama prompted a bitter tirade against Ankara from French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian, who told lawmakers in Paris it was time for a "frank debate" at Nato about whose side Turkey was on.

But, in an interview with AFP, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for a more pragmatic approach, saying the European Union would have to find a way to cooperate with Ankara.

"We have to understand that when you speak about the migrant and refugee crisis we speak about a common challenge, which we have to address together," Stoltenberg said.

"The only way to address the situation on the border is by working together." There was support for this view from Norbert Roettgen, chair of the foreign affairs committee in the German parliament and a contender to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"We have to face the reality and if you want to help the refugees you have to cooperate with Turkey," Roettgen said at the Institut Montaigne in Paris, calling for a dose of realpolitik.

"I cannot see a strategy without Turkey. Face the reality, it might not delight you but Turkey is the border state between Europe and the Middle East."

The migrant drama began after Russian-backed Syrian forces killed 34 Turkish troops in northern Syria, prompting Erdogan to seek greater assistance from allies -- both military and to support 3.7 million refugees and migrants currently hosted in Turkey.

France is one of a number of Nato members exasperated by Turkey’s actions in recent months and years -- including its unilateral incursion into Syria to fight Kurdish militias that had been important allies for the anti-Islamic State coalition.

At the French Senate on Wednesday, le Drian reeled off a list of "ambiguities" in Turkey’s actions, including its growing closeness to Moscow, its controversial territorial claims in the eastern Mediterranean and the migrant "blackmail".