The European Union has urged Turkey to open its borders to thousands of Syrians fleeing an onslaught by government forces and intense Russian airstrikes.
Turkey kept its Oncupinar border crossing closed on Saturday despite a significant increase in the number of arrivals to the European gateway in the past 48 hours.
As many as 70,000 people are expected to head for the border in the coming days, said Suleyman Tapsiz, governor of Turkey’s Kilis border province. There are already between 30,000 and 35,000 displaced Syrians on the Syrian side of the border being cared for by Turkey. Aid workers said the refugees were being directed to nearby camps.
Fifteen Syrians injured in bombings near Aleppo were allowed into Turkey through the crossing late on Friday night, but the Turkish government had not directly responded to the EU’s comments on Saturday evening. “Our doors are not closed, but at the moment there is no need to host such people inside our borders,” Tapsiz said.
Although the Oncupinar crossing remained closed, the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said after a meeting with EU foreign ministers in Amsterdam that his country would maintain its open border policy. Approximately 2.5 million Syrians are now living in Turkey.
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