Zürcher Nachrichten - Turkey says 12 migrants blocked by Greece die at border

EUR -
AED 4.263418
AFN 80.102537
ALL 97.805681
AMD 445.92619
ANG 2.077667
AOA 1064.548062
ARS 1462.724764
AUD 1.78108
AWG 2.089625
AZN 1.970327
BAM 1.944607
BBD 2.345598
BDT 141.147534
BGN 1.956957
BHD 0.437671
BIF 3296.963587
BMD 1.160903
BND 1.488333
BOB 8.027791
BRL 6.449741
BSD 1.161713
BTN 99.666306
BWP 15.621083
BYN 3.801816
BYR 22753.692361
BZD 2.333468
CAD 1.592468
CDF 3350.365078
CHF 0.930493
CLF 0.029264
CLP 1122.987363
CNY 8.327139
CNH 8.339333
COP 4684.822731
CRC 585.927315
CUC 1.160903
CUP 30.763921
CVE 110.924556
CZK 24.670688
DJF 206.315482
DKK 7.464557
DOP 69.985049
DZD 151.058119
EGP 57.359856
ERN 17.41354
ETB 158.521228
FJD 2.646274
FKP 0.864129
GBP 0.866857
GEL 3.145847
GGP 0.864129
GHS 12.072602
GIP 0.864129
GMD 83.004803
GNF 10048.773236
GTQ 8.91568
GYD 242.949454
HKD 9.112744
HNL 30.589896
HRK 7.535649
HTG 152.532003
HUF 400.499527
IDR 18889.743909
ILS 3.905579
IMP 0.864129
INR 99.830142
IQD 1520.7825
IRR 48903.025148
ISK 142.419701
JEP 0.864129
JMD 185.651363
JOD 0.823043
JPY 172.712714
KES 150.339252
KGS 101.516991
KHR 4666.828971
KMF 492.948309
KPW 1044.839818
KRW 1610.334071
KWD 0.355118
KYD 0.968127
KZT 610.98309
LAK 25034.866299
LBP 103958.834524
LKR 349.756748
LRD 233.341266
LSL 20.814798
LTL 3.427844
LVL 0.702218
LYD 6.280324
MAD 10.519518
MDL 19.63299
MGA 5142.798473
MKD 61.604186
MMK 2437.527181
MNT 4161.658823
MOP 9.393231
MRU 46.110683
MUR 52.751702
MVR 17.871696
MWK 2015.92058
MXN 21.834054
MYR 4.939678
MZN 74.250898
NAD 20.815169
NGN 1775.66964
NIO 42.663115
NOK 11.895108
NPR 159.466089
NZD 1.948951
OMR 0.446358
PAB 1.161713
PEN 4.134022
PGK 4.798301
PHP 65.979972
PKR 330.451204
PLN 4.264226
PYG 8995.222163
QAR 4.226384
RON 5.07837
RSD 117.150452
RUB 90.639837
RWF 1667.636688
SAR 4.354117
SBD 9.658199
SCR 16.891204
SDG 697.121269
SEK 11.283068
SGD 1.491731
SHP 0.912287
SLE 26.062511
SLL 24343.553151
SOS 663.454797
SRD 43.492635
STD 24028.341446
SVC 10.164492
SYP 15093.882638
SZL 20.814972
THB 37.822193
TJS 11.105873
TMT 4.074768
TND 3.367202
TOP 2.718952
TRY 46.735626
TTD 7.886604
TWD 34.134141
TZS 3032.862341
UAH 48.579867
UGX 4164.031217
USD 1.160903
UYU 47.347461
UZS 14853.749195
VES 134.316236
VND 30343.093576
VUV 138.731534
WST 3.18577
XAF 652.202823
XAG 0.030725
XAU 0.000349
XCD 3.137398
XDR 0.811419
XOF 652.427167
XPF 119.331742
YER 280.183787
ZAR 20.804902
ZMK 10449.515398
ZMW 26.515374
ZWL 373.810187
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Turkey says 12 migrants blocked by Greece die at border
Turkey says 12 migrants blocked by Greece die at border

Turkey says 12 migrants blocked by Greece die at border

Turkey on Wednesday accused Greece of allowing 12 migrants to die in the winter cold after stripping them of their clothes and then pushing them back across the Turkish border.

Text size:

The charges from Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu threaten to escalate simmering tensions between the rival members of the NATO defence alliance.

They also highlighted Ankara's concern that the European Union was not doing enough to support Turkey -- which hosts an estimated five million refugees and migrants -- in the face of a potential new flow of people from Afghanistan.

Soylu posted blurred images on Twitter showing partially naked bodies lying by the roadside.

"Twelve of the 22 migrants pushed back by Greek border units" froze to death after being "stripped (of) their clothes and shoes", Soylu wrote in English.

The "EU is remediless, weak and void of humane feelings", he added.

Soylu said the pictures were taken near Turkey's western border town of Ipsala.

The regional governor's office said 11 of the migrants were discovered frozen to death.

Another person who was rushed to hospital with frostbite "could not be saved and died", the governor's office said without identifying the nationalities of the migrants.

Greek officials were expected to issue an official statement later Wednesday.

- East Mediterranean collision -

Ankara's uneasy relations with Athens plunged into crisis in 2020 as Turkey began exploring for natural gas in eastern Mediterranean waters claimed by Greece and its fellow EU member Cyprus.

The conflict threatened to spill over into all-out war when their naval warships collided in disputed circumstances near one of the contested Mediterranean energy fields.

NATO then set up a telephone hotline aimed at addressing immediate security concerns.

But the sides continued to accuse each other of trying to escalate tensions by staging air and sea exercises around a string of islands whose ownership has been under dispute for most of the past century.

These tensions have been compounded by Ankara's claims that Greece is violating international conventions by intercepting migrant boats in the Aegean and then sending them back to Turkey.

Turkey's coast guard service said last month it had rescued more than 15,000 migrants pushed back by Greece last year. Rescuers recovered the bodies of 15 migrants.

Athens denies violating international conventions and insists it is doing its duty to protect the EU's southeastern borders against illegal crossings.

The EU has infuriated Turkey by largely supporting the Greek position.

- 2020 border crisis-

The governor's office responsible for security by the Greek border said judicial officials had launched a formal investigation into the circumstances of the migrants' deaths.

"A search continues by our gendarmerie, border units, police and AFAD (emergency service) teams," the Edirne governor's office added.

The border deaths come just over a month after Greece was rocked by a rapid series of boat accidents in the Aegean that killed at least 30 people.

The UN refugee agency estimates that more than 2,500 people died or went missing at sea as they tried to reach Europe from North Africa and Turkey last year.

Greece has fenced off large stretches of its 212-kilometre (132-mile) border with Turkey to limit some of the refugee flows.

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan helped spark violent border clashes by encouraging thousands of migrants to cross into Greece during a heated diplomatic dispute with the EU in March 2020.

The EU has since agreed to extend the terms of a 2016 deal under which Brussels provides billions of dollars in aid to Ankara in exchange for Turkey agreeing to host millions of Syrian and other refugees.

A.Wyss--NZN