
Erdogan threatens to flood Europe with refugees - sahin-boydas
https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/syria-turkey-military-offensive-dle-intl/index.html
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wsc981
It's really stupid of the EU that they don't really want to properly enforce
their own borders and instead outsource this job to a semi-dictator.

~~~
dmortin
It's not trivial to enforce a maritime border. What do you do if people come
on boats? You can pick them up from the boats, but Turkey won't take them
back. What then?

~~~
morningseagulls
>You can pick them up from the boats, but Turkey won't take them back. What
then?

<sarcasm>

Well... has anyone ever heard of Australia?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_in_Australia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_in_Australia)

>Australia is the only country in the world with a policy of mandatory
detention and offshore processing of asylum seekers who arrive without a valid
visa.

Find some islands somewhere and send the refugees there. And then wait.

Oh, and make threatening videos like this:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvz3U-JOvOU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvz3U-JOvOU)

</sarcasm>

~~~
pkaye
I'm curious how all this is different from what Trump has been attempting to
do at the US border? So shipping asylum seekers to a country with a semi-
dictator or an island somewhere is considered acceptable?

~~~
deogeo
If having a dictator rules out a country, then according to this map, we'd
have to take in nearly everyone: [https://planetrulers.com/current-
dictators/](https://planetrulers.com/current-dictators/)

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heraclius
3.6mn is so trifling that Turkey can deal with it. Europe could too, with
proper organisation; I hope that we face up to our responsibilities if Erdogan
follows through—at least then something good would come of Turkey’s aggression
against Rojava.

~~~
Someone
For Turkey, that’s 4,5% of its population.

I wouldn’t call that “trifling”.

~~~
heraclius
It’s trifling for Europe as a whole, as shown by the fact that Turkey managed
to process them alone. For Turkey or course it is not trifling.

~~~
mcsofake
> It’s trifling for Europe as a whole, as shown by the fact that Turkey
> managed to process them alone.

Considering the fact that 1 million refugees were enough to revitalize Neo-
Nazi parties and cause a wave of right-wing terrorism and political
assassinations, no, it is not trifling for Europe. I think some of you
forget/don't realize how dire the situation was before the 2016 EU-Turkey
refugee agreement. 5m would likely lead to the collapse of the EU.

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craftoman
Again, Europe is paying the "bill" and facing the consequences of the US-
Russian-Turkish war on Syria. Europe is spending billions for the refugees but
no one cared about. USA and Russian wanted to nuke the place for no reason and
they didn't even spend a penny for helping all the refugees and immigrants.
They're the most unethical countries right now.

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jeffdavis
Can someone please explain the border and refugee system here? What exactly is
he threatening to do? And if there are a lot of refugees, can't admission to
EU be a separate decision?

~~~
opwieurposiu
The EU pays Turkey a lot of money. In return Turkey patrols its coastline to
prevent migrants from boating across to the Greek islands. They can still get
in by making the longer trip from north africa. Numbers of migrants are down
since 2015 so perhaps it has been working?

~~~
kyriakos
I don't think the numbers are correct are down, situation in Greek Islands is
critical. If you read the local press there are islands that are so
overwhelmed that the locals are migrating to mainland cause they can no longer
live there.

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dehrmann
Hindsight being 20/20, and all, the US withdrawing from Iraq (with some
European pressure to do so) caused a lot of instability in the region. I doubt
that ISIS would have been much of a concern without a power void in Iraq.

~~~
GordonS
> I doubt that ISIS would have been much of a concern without a power void in
> Iraq

I doubt that ISIS would even have _existed_ without the US invasion of Iraq.

I, and plenty others, saw this coming without hindsight.

~~~
dehrmann
I agree, but once the US was in Iraq, it was kinda committed. Except it
wasn't.

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deodorel
I wonder why EU can't just strike back with economic sanctions if Erdogan
follows through with his menace. I think the lira could go really really
down...

