Source:
Press TV
Russia
says the allegations by Turkey, the United States, and some European countries
that a humanitarian crisis has been caused in northwestern Syria as a result of
Syrian and Russian military operations to retake territory from dangerous armed
militants there are incorrect.
Rear
Admiral Oleg Goravlov, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Center for
Syrian Reconciliation, was quoted as making the remark by Russia’s RT Arabic
service on Tuesday.
“The
statements made by representatives of Turkey, European countries, and the
United States against Russia and Syria that there are millions of refugees and
a humanitarian crisis caused by the exacerbation of the situation in the Idlib
area is incorrect,” Goravlov said.
He
stressed that the number of refugees who cross the border to Turkey would not
exceed 35,000 people, and that those refugees did not number at “millions,” as
claimed by regimes hostile to Damascus.
Pointing
to data collected by the center for Syrian Reconciliation, Goravlov said the
population of the areas under the control of terrorist groups in Idlib did not
exceed 1.8 million people as of January 1, 2020.
The
Russian official also referred to Turkey’s two previous acts of aggression in
northern Syria and said the number of the people displaced as a result of the
Turkish Operation Olive Branch in 2018 was about 250,000 — most of them being
Kurdish civilians — and that the number from Operation Peace Spring, another
Turkish incursion, was 135,000.
Over
the past few weeks, Turkey has been making provocative military moves in Idlib,
the only region in Syria with the largest concentration of militants. Syria
launched a counter-terrorism offensive in Idlib last December after its troops
and military advisers from Russia came under increasing militant attacks.
Turkey,
a patron of the militants, on Sunday declared an offensive against the Syrian
government after 34 Turkish troops — deployed alongside militants — were killed
in Syrian artillery fire.
Under
a deal reached with Russia in September 2018, Turkish troops were deployed to
man observation posts in Idlib. The agreement required Turkey to oust Takfiri
terrorists from the northwestern Syrian province. But, that was yet to happen
more than a year since the deal was reached.
The
tensions in Idlib have seen thousands of Syrians fleeing to the Turkish border
with Greece. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has attempted to exploit
the crisis to pressure European governments to back his offensive on Syria by
announcing last week that his government would no longer stop the refugees from trying to enter Europe, something he had committed to doing under a 2016 deal
with the EU.
Greece
has, in response, deployed its armed forces to prevent some 13,000 migrants
from crossing its border with Turkey over the past days, with various reports
of clashes and firing of tear gas to restrain the movement of migrants.
Erdogan’s
warning was also met with a wave of harsh criticisms from European governments,
with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying that it was “unacceptable” for
Turkey to pressure the EU “on the backs of refugees.”
Turkey
an ‘official migrant trafficker’
In
a related development on Tuesday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis
called Ankara “an official migrant trafficker,” and said Turkey was using the
refugee crisis on its borders to “divert attention” from the Syrian conflict.
“This
is no longer a refugee problem. This is a blatant attempt by Turkey to use
desperate people to promote its geopolitical agenda and to divert attention
from the horrible situation in Syria,” Mitsotakis told journalists at a press
conference after touring the Greek-Turkish border earlier in the day.
“Europe
will not be blackmailed by Turkey over the refugee issue. We stand ready to
support Turkey in dealing with its refugee problem and find a solution to the
Syria conundrum but not under these circumstances. My duty is to protect the
sovereignty of my country,” he said.
The
scenes of refugees heading toward Turkey’s border with Greece have sparked
fears of a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis, when over one million refugees
arrived in the EU, most of them fleeing conflict zones in the Middle East and
North Africa.
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Erdogan is once again using blackmail on Europe; expecting to get paid Billions for holding back a flood of economic migrants who are from all over Asia, Eurasia, the Middle East, and Africa. You can be sure that there are terrorists among them that were US armed and trained in Turkey. Now they will be unleashed on Europe.
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