After talks with the Turkish Prime Minister yesterday, Mrs Merkel said: “We have been, in the past few days, not just appalled but horrified by what has been caused in the way of human suffering for tens of thousands of people by bombing – primarily from the Russian side”.
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Ankara, which has already taken in an estimated 2.7 million Syrian refugees, is under pressure to prevent migrants continuing across the Mediterranean to Europe while also being urged to open its doors to another batch of arrivals.
The German and Turkish leaders agreed on a set of measures to halt the flow of refugees from Syria, including a joint diplomatic initiative to stop the current fighting around Aleppo.
Turkey’s prime minister said around 15,000 residents of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, have reached Turkey’s borders, adding that tens of thousands more could be on the way.
– Most of the refugees are in neighbouring countries, notably Turkey, which has become the biggest host country with between two and 2.5 million on its soil. We are on the verge of a new human tragedy, Davutoglu said.No one should excuse or show tolerance toward the Russian air attacks that amount to ethnic massacres by saying, Turkey takes care of the Syrian refugees anyway, Davutoglu said.
The complex multi-sided civil war has drawn in outside powers, with the United States leading a separate campaign of air strikes against Islamic State militants who control eastern Syria and northern Iraq.
The border crossings at Bab al-Salam and Oncupinar are closed, and Syrians are pushed back into camps on the Syrian border.
He said up to 20 people were crowding into tents being distributed by aid groups and which are usually meant for seven only, with homes in towns receiving displaced people also filled to capacity.
But he warned: “No one should assume that just because Turkey is taking in all the refugees that it should be expected to shoulder the refugee issue alone”.
In a televised speech on Friday, Ahmet Davutoglu promised Turkey would not leave the displaced “without food or shelter” but did not say whether the country meant to let them in.
Turkey’s coast guard said 22 migrants died after their boat capsized in the Bay of Edremit, while four people were rescued.
The blast came a day after an global rights group said Syrian government forces and the Russian military have been carrying out daily cluster bomb attacks over the past two weeks in Syria, killing 37 people. She said Europe wants to share the burden with Turkey on the refugee crisis.
Turkey agreed in November to fight smuggling networks and help curb irregular migration.
The sum has not been paid to Turkey yet, as the European Commission is identifying possible projects to fund which help refugees.
“Under such circumstances, it’s hard for peace talks to take place, and so this situation must be brought to an end quickly”, Merkel said. This new influx has seen over 60 donor countries again pledging a combined billions of dollars to Turkey in order to ease the plight of Syrian refugees.
Turkey has since started to require Syrians arriving from third countries to apply for visas, in a bid to exclude those who aim to continue on to Greece.
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The International Organization for Migration says 374 refugees and other migrants have died so far this year while trying to reach Greece.
