Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with senior officials of the European Union in Brussels on Monday to discuss numerous issues, among them migrants, it was announced on Sunday. He is scheduled to sit down with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. According to the Twitter feed of a spokesman for Michel, the agenda will include “migration, security, stability in the region and the crisis in Syria.” During a televised speech earlier on Sunday, Erdogan said: “Hey Greece…. Open the gates… and be free of this burden. Let them go to other European countries.” He was referring to tens of thousands of migrants who are waiting to cross Turkey’s border, where they have been halted by Greek authorities. Erdogan urged them to go there – in many cases even busing them there – to protest what he sees as a lack of promised support from Europe for the almost 4 million refugees currently in Turkey. The vast majority of these people fled Syria’s nine-year civil war, where an offensive by government troops – and counter-attacks by Turkish troops and Islamic militias supported by Ankara – is dislodging yet more non-combatants.
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