The refugees were collected off the Turkey’s western coast of Mugla, Antalya, Izmir and Canakkale provinces on Monday, the Turkish General Staff said in a series of statements on its website.
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The tension was evident as Erdogan visited Brussels this week to seek support not only for the refugees, but for Turkey’s interests in Europe and for its Syria policy, which differs from that of Western allies by focusing on the removal of Assad.
“Today, millions of potential refugees and migrants are dreaming about Europe, not only from Syria, but also from Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other places”.
There is concern that more Syrians will flee their country as fighting heats up again, with a Russian intervention to back the government of President Bashar al-Assad and reported increased aid to rebels from Gulf nations.
On Thursday, the interior ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland will discuss further ways to help Hungary, which has seen over 318,000 people seeking safety arrive this year.
Work is ongoing to reach agreement on the details of the plan which is offering a two-pronged approach to addressing the crisis: by supporting the refugees and their host communities in Turkey and by boosting cooperation to prevent irregular migration flows to the EU. And we can not do it on our own.
The vast majority don’t want to stay in the financially troubled country and head north through the Balkans to more prosperous European Union states. But the town became the unlikely focus for a different form of political action last Sunday, when Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan chose to kick off his three-day European tour in the French town.
He was speaking at a rally in Strasbourg attended by hundreds of Turks, before Turkey’s November 1 elections.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has previously rejected an European Union plan to set up “hotspots” on Turkish soil to register asylum seekers.
Migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos will travel to Turkey next week.
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Turkey is the main gateway for migrants coming to Europe, with most making the short but unsafe sea crossing to Greece. The Italian coast guard said overnight that 1,830 people were rescued from the Mediterranean in six separate interventions on Monday, also involving Irish and British navy boats.
