“We have much wider considerations now…”
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The latest gains by the Syrian government bring it to the closest point to the Turkish border since August 2013, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Turkey has warned that it may have reached the limit of its “capacity to absorb” more refugees. “Unless this is reopened, you will see Aleppo falling day by day into a similar situation as in Madaya and Ghouta and you will see a deepening humanitarian crisis”, he said.
Local authorities say there is no need, for now, to open the gates as Turkish aid groups are providing the Syrian side of the border with food and supplies. “Turkey is under threat”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by the Hurriyet newspaper as telling reporters on his plane after a visit to Latin America. It has called for the establishment of a safe zone in Syria’s north to give displaced Syrians a safe place in their own country.
He stressed that Ankara is not in a position to say to refugees not to come to the border.
Trucks carry tents and construction material to be used for make-shift refugee housing, in Oncupinar, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2016. A wounded teenager and his father were let through by foot early on Monday, while a number of ambulances transported the badly injured to hospitals in nearby Turkish towns. But for the majority, the border is firmly closed.
However, Erdogan has said that, “If needed, we will let those brothers in”. On Friday, OCHA spokeswoman Linda Tom said the Aleppo fighting had disrupted major aid and supply routes from the Turkish border. “We want to get through and provide security for our children”. We are turning to Turkey where there is safety and no bombing.
European Union enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn, by contrast, insisted that there was “no doubt” Turkey could do more to stop the refugees, and that a November deal obliges them to do something to prevent refugees from reaching European Union soil.
Refugees at the Oncupinar crossing near the Turkish city of Kilis were being shepherded into camps on the Syria side, Reuters reported Monday.
Abu Shakra said he has briefly crossed to Turkey for talks leaving his Free Syrian Army fighters defending Aleppo on two or three fronts.
“It is a confused situation and the 35,000 stopped from crossing into Turkey are feeling the effect”.
In Istanbul alone, there are now 40,000 refugees from Syria.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday that Turkey had already received 5,000 people fleeing the Aleppo offensive and another 50,000 to 55,000 were on their way.
Fierce clashes in the north of Aleppo province – sparked by a week-long government assault with Russian air support – have displaced tens of thousands of people.
“It’s not like we’re shutting our doors in their face”.
The army’s advance has also been indirectly helped by Kurdish-led YPG militias who control the city of Afrin, south west of Azaz.
No. Thousands of opposition fighters are flocking to Aleppo to defend it.
“I fled Assad’s and Russia’s bombardment”.
“We’ve been living out in the open because we don’t have any place to stay”, Ahmad told AFP.
Merkel, whose country has received over one million migrants in the past year, said she was “horrified” by the suffering of the families stranded in the cold and wet around the border gate.
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With more tents being sent across the border, it remains unclear when, or if, Ankara will open the border. “We were surrounded, we have nowhere to go and we have nothing – no water, power, nothing, how can we live?”
