Greek army and navy put on high alert on Evros and the Aegean after Erdogan’s threats

The General Staff of Greece on Friday evening issued an order to transfer the country’s armed forces to a state of high alert and to strengthen surveillance on the land and sea borders with Turkey.

This measure should be understood as a “precautionary” measure, following threats from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a day earlier that he would open the doors for migrants and send them to Greece.

In an emergency meeting on Friday afternoon, the Chief of General Staff, along with the Chiefs of Staff of the Ground Forces, Air Force and Navy, decided to take “precautions, with particular emphasis on strengthening surveillance of land and sea borders, strengthening readiness, and immediate reporting to border guards. about incidents associated with an increase in the flows of illegal migration “, – write the Greek mass media citing military sources.

Measures were also taken in cooperation with the chiefs of the Greek police and the Greek coast guard, media reported…

During joint statements with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Ankara, Erdogan personally attacked Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, accusing him of lying about migrants. He then proceeded to direct the threat of flooding the Greek-Turkish border with migrants, saying that Ankara was unfairly accused of instrumentalizing the refugee theme.

# Τουρκία @RTErdogan: “Αχαριστία” η επίρριψη ευθυνών στην Τουρκία για την προσφυγική κρίση#Erdoganhttps://t.co/ybOAP2hGuG pic.twitter.com/TM3Tg8JJAm

– ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ (@amna_news) November 11, 2021

“It is not grateful to say that the problem of immigration comes from Turkey, a country in whose territory there are almost 5 million refugees. If we open the doors, I don’t know what Greece can do. ” threatened President of Turkey.

Athens replied that “Greece is a European state with the rule of law. It protects its borders, which are at the same time the borders of the European Union, and at the same time saves lives at sea. And when it is threatened by countries that use desperate people to achieve geopolitical goals, it will always react decisively. This is what Greece did on Evros in March 2020 with the support of Europe, ”the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

In early spring 2020, Greece confronted thousands of migrants who Erdogan sent to the borders of Evros in order to get a new cash tranche from Europe. Only the beginning of a pandemic and the solidarity of European countries did not allow this avalanche to overstep the borders of Greece.

…



Source link