German Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised to give additional cash to Turkey for migrants after the country opened the gates to Greece late last month.
The announcement comes after both Merkel and Macron, along with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, attended a migrant summit through teleconference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
At a press briefing in Berlin after the conference, Merkel said in comments reported by the Daily Sabah: “Germany has earmarked 25 million euros plus 100 million euros for humanitarian assistance, and this must now quickly reach the people.”
Merkel is also said to have told Erdogan that she would look at increasing European Union funds if Turkey halted the migrants heading toward the Greek border.
The additional cash comes under a month after Erdogan opened the gates to Europe for any and all migrants wanting to leave Turkey. Greek authorities have accused Ankara of using busses and trains to ship large numbers of migrants to the border area.
The migrant summit was focused on migrants in the Syrian province of Idlib where Turkey has been engaged in military operations against the government and armed forces of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
Other topics were briefly mentioned during the conference, including Turkey’s desire to see an expanded customs union between it and the European Union.
While Germany has moved to send more cash to Erdogan, other countries have stood with the Greeks in defending their border from a new wave of mass migration including Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who sent commandos of the Cobra Special Forces to the area.
On Tuesday, members of the Austrian commandos came face to face with Turkish border police who asked them what they were doing, since Greece was not their country.
“Here is our country and we defend the European border,” the Austrians are said to have replied.
Greek newspaper Proto Thema also released several short videos of yet another attack by migrants on the border, which the paper alleges was backed by Turkish officials using tear gas.
Turkish officers have previously admitted to helping migrants get across the border. Greece recently deployed large fans in order to blow back the tear gas.
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