Turkey opens refugee floodgates
- Greek police fire teargas on migrants at Turkish border
- US to help Turkey in Syria via info-sharing, equipment
- UN chief urges all sides to step back from escalation
Refugees in Turkey headed towards European frontiers after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the borders had been thrown open, a response to the escalating war in Syria where 34 Turkish soldiers were killed by Russian-backed Syrian government troops.
Turkey and Russia, which back opposing forces in the Syria conflict, held high-level talks to try to defuse tensions that have sparked fears of a broader war and a new migration crisis for Europe.
Erdogan may travel next week to Moscow for talks, according to the Kremlin.
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to try to avert open conflict between Russia and Nato member Turkey.
US President Donald Trump, in a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, condemned the attack and reaffirmed Washington's support for Ankara's efforts to avert a humanitarian disaster in Syria, a White House spokesman said.
The two leaders also said Syria and Russia must halt their offensive in northwest Syria, spokesman Judd Deere said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described it as "one of the most alarming moments" of the nine-year-old Syrian war and urged all sides to step back from escalating crisis.
Greek police yesterday clashed with thousands of migrants who were already gathering on the border to try to enter Europe.
Erdogan today vowed to allow refugees to travel on to Europe from Turkey which he said can no longer handle new waves of people fleeing war-torn Syria. It already hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees.
"What did we do yesterday (Friday)? We opened the doors," Erdogan said in Istanbul. "We will not close those doors ...Why? Because the European Union should keep its promises."
He was referring to a 2016 deal with the European Union to stop refugee flows in exchange for billions of euros in aid.
The Turkish leader said 18,000 migrants have amassed on the Turkish borders with Europe since Friday, adding that the number could reach as many as 30,000 today.
Turkey's neighbours Greece and Bulgaria, both European Union member states, vowed not to admit the migrants and reinforced their borders. It was closed under an accord between Turkey and the European Union that halted the 2015-16 migration crisis when more than a million people crossed into Europe by foot.
At the Pazarkule border post with Greece, scores of migrants faced barbed wire fences and smoke grenades. Some stuck in the no-man's land between the two countries tried to return to the Turkish side, only to be turned back by Turkish authorities.
The EU said that Ankara had made no formal announcement of any change in policy at the border.
Inside Syria there was ample evidence of the renewed fighting that has caused perhaps the worst humanitarian crisis of the conflict. A million civilians have been displaced since December inside Syria near the Turkish border in desperate winter conditions.
Syria's civil war has worsened dramatically in recent months despite largely vanishing from Western countries' agendas. Government forces, backed by Russian air power, have launched a major assault to capture the northwest, the last remaining territory held by rebels backed by Turkey.
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