Greek authorities fired tear gas and stun grenades Wednesday morning to push back migrants trying to cross its land border from Turkey, as pressure continued along its frontier after Turkey said its own border with Europe was open to whoever wanted to cross.
The clashes were near the border village of Kastanies, along a border fence that covers much of the land border not demarcated by the Evros river running along the frontier.
Turkish officials claimed Wednesday that one migrant was killed by Greek fire.
"Six men were injured after live bullets were used," the Edirne governor's office in northwestern Turkey said, adding that one of the men later died of his injuries.
Turkey made good on a threat to open its borders and send migrants into Europe last week. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's action triggered days of violent clashes and scenes of chaos at the land border, where thousands of migrants and refugees have gathered.
Hundreds more have headed to Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast in dinghies. One child died when the rubber dinghy he was in capsized off the coast of the Greek island of Lesbos earlier this week.
European countries must support Turkey's "solutions" in Syria if they want to resolve the migration crisis, Erdogan said Wednesday, accusing Europe of "trampling" on refugees' rights.
"If European countries want to resolve the issue, they must support Turkey's efforts for political and humanitarian solutions in Syria," he said in a televised speech.
"All European countries closing their borders to refugees today, trying to push them back by hitting them and sinking their boats, in fact even shooting at them, are trampling over the universal declaration of human rights," he said in Ankara.
Following the deaths of over 30 Turkish soldiers in Syrian regime fire last week in Idlib, Turkey opened its borders with Europe to refugees and migrants.
‘Herding’ refugees
Turkey is home to around 3.6 million Syrian refugees and many other migrants from countries including Afghanistan use Turkey as a transit country to Europe.
It fears another mass influx if Idlib, the last opposition stronghold, falls to the regime.
The offensive has killed dozens of Turkish troops and sent nearly a million Syrian civilians toward Turkey’s sealed border. However, Oleg Zhuravlev, head of the Russian military’s coordination center in Syria, said Tuesday the claims about a humanitarian crisis in Idlib were false.
Zhuravlev said Turkish authorities were “herding" about 130,000 refugees, who were in temporary camps near the Turkey-Syria border, toward the border with Greece. He said most were not from Syria.
Athens has called the situation a direct threat to Greece's national security and has imposed emergency measures to carry out swift deportations and freeze asylum applications for one month. Migrants have been reporting being summarily pushed back across the border into Turkey.
On Greece's land border with Turkey, Greek authorities said Turkish police were firing tear gas at the Greek border and the authorities guarding it, and supplied video they said backed their assertion.
Turkey, for its part, accused Greece of mistreating refugees.
“Greece treats refugees horribly and then turns around to blame Turkey,” Fahrettin Altun, the communications director of Turkey's presidency, tweeted Tuesday night. “This is the kind of double standards and hypocrisy we have gotten used to over the years. The country that just suspended temporary protection and tear gassed migrations has no moral authority to speak of!"
Meanwhile, European Council head Charles Michel was scheduled to meet with Erdogan in Ankara Wednesday, while EU Vice President Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic will hold talks with Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay.
Top EU officials, including Michel and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen, visited the Greek border area Tuesday along with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who said Turkey "has systematically encouraged and assisted tens of thousands of refugees and migrants to illegally enter Greece."
Greek authorities said they had prevented 26,532 people from entering Greece between Saturday morning and Tuesday afternoon, and arrested 218.
Von der Leyen expressed support for Greece, noting the border wasn't just a national one but an external border of the EU. Those trying to cross into Greece had “been lured by false promises into this desperate situation," she said.
Ankara has come under harsh criticism from some European countries.
"The people are being used by President Erdogan as a political football, as weapons and as instruments of pressure on the European Union," Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Tuesday.
