European leaders are on Thursday set to strongly condemn Turkey's "illegal actions" toward Greece and Cyprus in a blistering denunciation that could upend an EU-Turkish summit in Bulgaria next week.

The statement by the 28 European Union member states meeting in Brussels comes after Turkey's arrest of two Greek soldiers, and its promise to prevent the internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot government from exploring for oil and gas.

"The European Council strongly condemns Turkey's continued illegal actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea and underlines its full solidarity with Cyprus and Greece," the draft conclusions said.

The draft "calls on Turkey to cease these actions and respect the sovereign rights of Cyprus to explore and exploit its natural resources in accordance with EU and international law."

The statement shows firm support for Greece and Cyprus -- which have so far been among the EU countries most reluctant to endorse a separate EU summit condemnation of a nerve agent attack on a former Russian agent on English soil.

The draft urged Turkey to normalise relations with Cyprus, divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and occupied the northern third of the island in response to a Greek military junta-sponsored coup.

A standoff over exploiting energy resources in the region risks further complicating stalled efforts to reunify Cyprus after UN-backed talks collapsed last year.

In recent weeks Turkish warships blocked an Italian drillship from exploring for gas in the east Mediterranean island's waters.

The leaders also expressed "grave concern over the continued detention of EU citizens in Turkey" and called for these issues to be resolved through dialogue with the EU member states.

Two Greek soldiers were arrested on March 2 for entering a military zone in the northern Turkish province of Edirne and are waiting for their case to be heard.

Ties between Athens and Ankara are strained by the Greek failure to extradite eight Turkish troops who escaped Turkey by helicopter on the night of the July 2016 attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish tensions with Greece and Cyprus are part of a wider plunge in relations since Brussels denounced Ankara over its post-coup crackdown.

Turkey has expressed increasing anger over its long-stalled bid to join the EU, mainly over human rights concerns.

It was not clear whether the summit denunciation could derail an EU-Turkey summit in the Bulgarian resort of Varna on Monday aimed at improving strained ties.

An EU diplomat appeared to suggest Wednesday that the summit would go ahead although it will be "difficult and sensitive" because of the many disputes.

The diplomat said on condition of anonymity that the goal would be to keep "pragmatic strategic cooperation."

The EU sees Turkey as a strategic partner in the fight against Islamic extremism and its efforts to stop Syrian and other asylum seekers from flooding into Europe and destabilising the bloc under a 2016 aid-for-cooperation deal.</s>When the Clinton administration formulated the notion of rogue regime, they defined it as a country that embraced terrorism, was governed by an undemocratic cabal, and did not abide by the norms of diplomacy. Just how much of a rogue regime has Turkey become?

Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s turn toward terrorism is well-established. Turkey supports Hamas unabashedly, the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, and perhaps even the Islamic State. Ahmet Kavas, an Erdogan appointee, defended al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb while serving as ambassador to Chad. Recorded phone calls leaked to the press also suggest that Turkey may have armed Boko Haram in Nigeria.

What about diplomatic norms? Turkey is now practicing the same sort of hostage diplomacy in which North Korea and Iran engage. Last July, Sigmar Gabriel, at the time Germany’s foreign minister, called out Turkey for arresting German citizens as hostages to win diplomatic concessions or to force Germans to self-censor. “The cases of Peter Steudtner, Deniz Yucel and Ms. [Mesale] Tolu are examples of the absurd accusations of terror propaganda that obviously are only meant to serve to silence every critical voice in Turkey … and also voices from Germany,” he said.

The Erdogan regime has also targeted Americans. Turkey detained and now seeks 35 years in prison for American pastor Andrew Brunson on terrorism charges even though it has been able to provide no evidence to support such assertions. Serkan Golge, a Turkish-American NASA scientist, now serves 7.5 years in prison on equally spurious charges. In addition, Turkey has arrested a number of local employees of American diplomatic missions in Turkey, violating the ability of the U.S. embassy and its various consulates to function. Erdogan has also leveraged Turkish organizations in the United States and Europe to spy on those deemed insufficiently loyal to the Turkish strongman.

Again, check the box on undemocratic cabals. Erdogan is an unrepentant strongman. He stands above the law, has embezzled billions, jailed journalists, and increasingly wields power with his immediate family to the detriment even of the political party he created.

The problem with rogue leaders is what they lack in governing capacity, they make up for in conspiracy and provocation. That appears increasingly to be the case with regard to Greece: Earlier this month, Turkey detained two Greek soldiers whom Turkish officials say strayed into Turkish territory while patrolling a forested border region in poor weather. The continued detention of the Greek soldiers comes amidst Erdogan’s ire that a Greek court refuses to release asylum-seeking Turks who fled to Greece against the backdrop of Erdogan’s 2016 purges of the Turkish military. The Greek court, for its part, refused to deport the Turkish soldiers after the Turkish government was repeatedly unable to provide credible evidence showing their culpability in the 2016 abortive coup. That Turks would seek refuge in Greece does not surprise given the deterioration in Turkish civil society; the rate of Turks seeking asylum in Greece has increased 40-fold in just three years.

Back to the two Greek soldiers whom Turkey now holds: Both Turkey and Greece quickly resolved past cases where Turks and Greeks strayed accidentally across their mutual border quickly at the local level, usually with communication among commanders along each zone of the border. This is what makes Turkey’s imprisonment of the Greeks a break with precedent. It is also impossible to dismiss the possibility that Turkey simply kidnapped the Greeks in much the same way that, in September 2014, Russian forces kidnapped an Estonian officer from within Estonia in order to pressure Russia’s smaller, Western-looking, and democratically-oriented neighbor.

The situation becomes even more worrisome given Turkey’s increasing revanchism toward former Ottoman territories now part of Greece, Bulgaria, Syria, and Iraq. Visiting Greece last December, Erdogan spoke about his desire to revise the 95-year-old Treaty of Lausanne, which established the borders of modern Turkey. And, on March 11, he referred to the southern Bulgarian town of Kardzhali as within Turkey’s “spiritual boundaries.” Turkish newspapers have published maps depicting the vision of ultranationalists and Erdogan with regard to expanded Turkey.

So what to do? As previous hostage diplomacy with Iran and North Korea shows, giving into demands or paying ransom only encourages more hostage-taking. Nor has appeasing Russia moderated Vladimir Putin’s behavior. To welcome any Turkish official in the United States or Europe so long as Turkey holds Americans and Germans hostage should also be a non-starter. The imprisonment of Greek soldiers in Turkey is further evidence that Turkey does not belong in NATO. Indeed, every NATO member in good standing should send Turkish officers home until Turkey releases its Greek hostages.

Proponents of engaging Turkey say that Erdogan is transactional and, if offered enough, will reverse course. Nonsense. NATO membership is meant to defend against crises, not to enable individual states to provoke them or initiate bidding wars to profit off them. Congress should go further. It should stop delivery of F-35s to Turkey or any other military or security assistance. So long as Erdogan remains in power, Turkey will remain a rogue regime deserving isolation and sanctioning, not partnership.</s>ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece will continue its bilateral efforts to secure the release of two Greek soldiers detained in Turkey but is also counting on the support of its European allies, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Friday.

The soldiers' case has heightened tension between Greece and Turkey, NATO allies which came close to war as recently as 1996. They have seen renewed diplomatic strain over natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean and the fate of eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece after a failed 2016 coup in Turkey.

 The two soldiers were arrested this month after crossing the border into Turkey in bad weather. Greece says the incident was the result of "a mistake" and has asked for their quick return.

 Tsipras, speaking at an EU summit in Brussels, said he had assurances from the heads of the EU Commission and EU Council that the issue would be raised with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during talks in Bulgaria next week.

 "We will continue our efforts through bilateral channels, but at the same time, we count on the official and open mobilization of our partners, our allies," Tsipras said. 

 "We will remain focused on our effort to extend a hand of dialogue, a hand of friendship towards our neighboring country. We want cooperation, dialogue, peace," Tsipras said.

 EU member states expressed their concern over the continued detention of EU citizens in Turkey, including the two Greek soldiers, and called for a "swift and positive" resolution of these issues.

 

 (Reporting by Karolina Tagaris and George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Gareth Jones)</s>BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany will have no choice but to restrict its economic ties with Turkey to pressure its NATO partner into releasing German citizens it imprisoned on political grounds, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in remarks published on Saturday.

Relations between the two countries are strained by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's crackdown on opponents after a failed coup last year. Germany and its partners in the European Union say the crackdown undermines democracy.

 Turkey and Germany are also at odds over Berlin's refusal to extradite asylum seekers Erdogan accuses of involvement in the botched coup against him.

 "We will have to further cut back our joint economic cooperation with Turkey and scrutinize projects," Merkel told the Passauer Neuen Presse newspaper in an interview when asked how she wants to secure the release of Germans held in Turkey.

 The simmering tensions have seeped into campaigning for a federal election in Germany, especially after Erdogan urged German Turks to boycott the main parties in the vote on Sept. 24.

 Home to some 3 million people of Turkish descent, Germany has traditionally had good relations with Turkey, which is also a major trade partner and tourist destination for German sun-seekers.

 German officials have been enraged by Turkey's arrest of around a dozen German citizens, including the German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel, who has been held for more than 200 days.

 Merkel, whose conservatives are expected to win the election and secure her a fourth term in office, said on Tuesday Germany would restrict some arms sales to Turkey.

 Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) who are trailing the conservatives in opinion polls, had earlier said that all major arms exports to Turkey had been put on hold.

 Merkel said during a televised debate earlier this month that Turkey should not become a member of the European Union - Turkey's largest trading partner with which it has a customs union.

 She said she would talk to Germany's EU partners to reach a compromise on ending Turkey's accession talks with the bloc. 

 

 (Reporting by Joseph Nasr; editing by Clelia Oziel)</s>European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday unanimously condemned Turkey for its aggression toward Greece and Cyprus and called on Ankara to release two Greek soldiers who have been in Turkish custody for more than three weeks.

In a draft common statement, the European Council “strongly condemns Turkey’s continued illegal actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea” and underlines its “full solidarity with Cyprus and Greece.”

The draft noted that “the European Council urgently calls on Turkey to cease these actions and respect the sovereign rights of Cyprus to explore and exploit its natural resources in accordance with EU and International Law.”

The draft also expressed “grave concern” about the continued detention of EU citizens in Turkey and called for the “swift and positive resolution of these issues in a dialogue with member-states.”

Arriving at the Brussels summit, Tsipras said it was important the EU insist on Turkey respecting international laws but also to keep dialogue open with Ankara.

Just a few hours later, Turkish aircraft carried out the latest in a series of violations in the Aegean.

Two Turkish F-16s harassed a Chinook helicopter that had been carrying the head of the armed forces, Lieutenant General Alkiviadis Stefanis, from the small island of Ro to Rhodes.

The pilots of the Turkish F-16s called on the helicopter to withdraw, claiming that it was in Turkish air space, before being chased off by Greek jets.

The talks in Brussels, which continue on Friday, come ahead of Monday’s scheduled meeting between EU leaders and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Varna, Bulgaria.

Diplomats in Brussels stressed the importance of keeping channels of communication open with Ankara, with which the EU signed a deal to curb illegal migration in 2016.

But clearly concerns about Turkey linger, in Brussels and beyond. According to a statement issued by Tsipras’s office, the Greek premier spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone, discussing “developments in the Eastern Mediterranean with particular emphasis on the stance of Turkey.”

Later the Kremlin said Putin invited Tsipras to Russia.

Separately, the White House said that US President Donald Trump spoke Thursday with Erdogan to “reaffirm the importance of strong relations between the United States and Turkey.”

Meanwhile there were fresh concerns over reports in a Turkish newspaper according to which the two Greek soldiers in custody in Turkey are being investigated by Turkish authorities for alleged espionage.

According to Hurriyet, Turkish authorities found “sketches of military installations” during a search on the soldiers’ cell phones and on an encrypted phone they were allegedly carrying at the time of their arrest.

The newspaper’s claims that the two soldiers are being charged with attempted military espionage and illegal entry into a restricted military area had not been confirmed by late last night.</s>BRUSSELS – Speaking from the European Union capital, Greece’s major opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis repeated his call for Turkey to return two Greek soldiers being held after accidentally crossing the border during a storm while on patrol near an area where Turkey lets refugees and migrants try to sneak across into Greece.

With Prime Minister and Radical Left SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras at a loss how to get them back, first saying it was up to the Turkish justice system to decide their fate – then asking the EU to intervene and help – it’s been Mitsotakis who’s been the most vocal in urging their release.

Mitsotakis repeated the same call he had made while touring the United States and this time did it after leaving a European Peoples Party (EPP) meeting of the EU’s center-right major parties, the business newspaper Naftemporiki said.

“An insignificant border incident has been transformed into a problematic situation between two countries, threatening the status quo of the past decades, as well as the mutual rapprochement of the two people,” he said.

Despite tension between the two countries, and with worries Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been stepping up provocations, will use the Greek soldiers as bargaining chips to force the return of eight Turkish soldiers seeking asylum after fleeing a failed coup against him, a coming EU-Turkey meeting in Bulgaria is still on.

The Turkish soldiers said they didn’t take part in the failed coup in July, 2016 but fled for their lives and Greece’s highest court has barred their extradition, saying their lives would be in danger.

Tsipras, reportedly fearful Erdogan would unleash more refugees and migrants on nearby Greek islands off the Turkish coast, opposes asylum for the Turkish soldiers but said they wouldn’t be extradited although some SYRIZA ministers said they are guilty and should be sent back to keep peace with Erdogan.

Previous incidents of soldiers between the countries accidentally crossing the border had been resolved at lower levels in a matter of hours but Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, leader of the pro-austerity, marginal, jingoistic Independent Greeks (ANEL) who are junior partners in the coalition led by SYRIZA, said they are hostage, a term that rankled Tsipras, who didn’t want to make waves.</s>As expected the EU leaders condemned “Turkey’s continued illegal actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea” in the EU Summit conclusions. The statement also expressed the EU’s concern over the detainment of the two Greek servicemen in Turkey, while voicing its solidarity with Greece and Cyprus. The full statement of conclusions entitled “European Council on the Western Balkans and actions by Turkey in the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea” was the following:

Western Balkans

 8. Against the background of the Commission Communication of 6 February 2018, the European Council:
• looks forward to the EU-Western Balkans Summit to be held in Sofia on 17 May 2018, which is expected to focus on reaffirming the European perspective of the region, launching concrete and visible initiatives to improve the physical and human connectivity within the region and with the EU, and addressing how to better engage together on shared challenges such as security and migration;
• confirms that enlargement will be addressed by the Council in June.

 Actions by Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea

 12. The European Council strongly condemns Turkey’s continued illegal actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea and underlines its full solidarity with Cyprus and Greece.

 13. Recalling its conclusions of October 2014 and the Declaration of 21 September 2005, the European Council urgently calls on Turkey to cease these actions and respect the sovereign rights of Cyprus to explore and exploit its natural resources in accordance with EU and International Law.

 14. In this context, it recalls Turkey’s obligation to respect International Law and good neighbourly relations, and normalize relations with all EU Member States including the Republic of Cyprus.

 15. The European Council expressed its grave concern over the continued detention of EU citizens in Turkey, including two Greek soldiers, and calls for the swift and positive resolution of these issues in a dialogue with Member States.

 16. The European Council will remain seized of these matters.</s>Turkey has condemned a statement by leaders of the European Union that criticised Ankara for "continued illegal actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea", increasing tensions between Ankara and Brussels just days before a key summit.

The European Council on Thursday called on Turkey to respect the sovereign rights of Cyprus to explore and exploit its natural resources in accordance with the EU and international law.

Turkey has vowed to prevent the Greek Cypriot government from exploring for oil or gas around the divided island, claiming that some areas of Cyprus' offshore exclusive economic zone fall under its jurisdiction or that of Turkish Cypriots.

Turkey's navy has been blocking private drill ships hired by Greek Cypriots from entering some of the zones off the Cyprus coast, which the European Council called illegal.

"Such wordings solely based on the Greek Cypriot and Greek claims are unacceptable and create an opportunity for some other countries to hide behind them as well," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday, adding the EU cannot be an objective actor on the Cyprus dispute.

Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik said on Twitter on European Council conclusions: "When solidarity takes over legality and equity, then no one can talk about legitimacy. Solidarity is meaningful only when it is legitimate."

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The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which has its own parliament and state institutions, is recognised only by Turkey since it unilaterally declared independence in 1983, breaking away from the Republic of Cyprus.

Cyprus had been practically divided since 1974, when Turkey's militarily intervened on the island in response to a brief Greece-inspired coup. Ankara said it acted in line with a treaty of guarantee signed in 1960 when the Republic of Cyprus was founded.

'Grave concern'

The Council's conclusions also expressed "grave concern" over the continued detention of EU citizens in Turkey, including two Greek soldiers, and calls for the swift and positive resolution of these issues in a dialogue with member states.

The soldiers were arrested on espionage charges on March 2 after entering northwestern Turkey and they have been waiting for their case to be heard.

The soldiers say they accidentally passed into Turkish land. Turkish state media reported that military sketches were found on the soldiers.

The trade of barbs come between Brussels and Ankara comes only days before a summit between EU President Donald Tusk, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker EU and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on March 26 in Varna, Bulgaria.

The meeting will discuss how to move the relationship between the two sides forward, on the basis of mutual respect and common interests.

"[The EU and Turkey] will assess matters of mutual interest and recent developments in Turkey, including in the area of rule of law and fundamental freedoms," a statement by the European Council, the primary legislative institution of the EU said.</s>A Turkish soldier surveys the border line between Turkey and Syria near the city of Kilis, March 2, 2017. © 2017 Reuters/Murad Sezer (Brussels) – Turkish security forces have routinely intercepted hundreds, and at times thousands, of asylum seekers at the Turkey-Syria border since at least December 2017 and summarily deported them to the war-ravaged Idlib governorate in Syria, Human Rights Watch said today. Turkish border guards have shot at asylum seekers trying to enter Turkey using smuggling routes, killing and wounding them, and have deported to Idlib newly arrived Syrians in the Turkish town of Antakya, 30 kilometers from the Syrian border.

The Russian-Syrian military alliance’s December offensive against anti-government forces in Idlib has displaced almost 400,000 civilians, according to the UN. They have joined more than 1.3 million others trapped inside Idlib in insecure, overcrowded camps, and in makeshift camps in fields near the closed Turkish border where they are under constant threat of attack and lack food, clean water, shelter, health care, and aid. At a March 26, 2018 summit meeting in Bulgaria, the European Union should press Turkey to allow Syrian civilians fleeing fighting to seek protection inside Turkey and pledge increased aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey and the region.

“As border guards try to seal the last remaining gaps in Turkey’s border, hundreds of thousands of Syrians are trapped in fields to face the bombs on the Syrian side,” said Gerry Simpson, associate refugee rights program director at Human Rights Watch. “The EU should press Turkey to open its border to those in need, and provide meaningful support, not silently stand by as Turkey ignores refugee law and pushes thousands back to face the carnage.”

Border area where Turkish security forces regularly carry out mass deportations of Syrian asylum seekers. Satellite data © 2018 DigitalGlobe; Analysis © 2018 Human Rights Watch In response to these allegations, the Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM) in Turkey’s Ministry of Interior provided Human Rights Watch with a lengthy statement, which said, in part, that “while maintaining the security of borders against terrorist organizations, Turkey continues to accept Syrians in need coming to the borders, and never opens fire on or uses violence against them.”

The DGGM said that it registered 510,448 Syrians coming through the designated border gates in 2017, and 91,866 so far in 2018, and provided them with temporary protection. As seen from the numbers, the DGMM statement said, “allegations suggesting that Syrians are not registered are not true.” It does not appear that Turkish authorities conducted an investigation into Human Rights Watch’s specific findings.

In mid-February, Human Rights Watch spoke by phone with 21 Syrians about their repeated failed attempts to cross into Turkey with smugglers. Eighteen of them said that intensified Russia-Syrian airstrikes in Deir al-Zour and in Idlib had repeatedly displaced them until they finally decided they had no option but to risk their lives and flee to Turkey.

Those interviewed described 137 incidents, almost all between mid-December and early March, in which Turkish border guards intercepted them just after they had crossed the border with smugglers. Human Rights Watch spoke with another 35 Syrians stuck in Idlib who had not tried to escape for fear of being shot by border guards.

Nine people also described 10 incidents between September and early March in which Turkish border guards shot at them or others ahead of them as they tried to cross, killing 14 people, including 5 children, and injuring 18.

Civilians in Idlib have also been caught in the crossfire between Kurdish and Turkish forces during the offensive by Turkey in the Kurdish-held town of Afrin in Syria, north of Idlib, which began on January 20.

In November, the United Nations refugee agency said in its latest country guidance on Syria that “all parts of Syria are reported to have been affected, directly or indirectly, by one or multiple conflicts” and therefore maintained its long-standing call on all countries “not to forcibly return Syrians.”

Syrians who tried to enter Turkey said they were intercepted after they crossed the Orontes River or near the internally displaced persons camp in al-Dureyya. They said Turkish border guards deported them along with hundreds, and at times thousands, of other Syrians they had intercepted. They said the guards forced them to return to Syrian territory at an informal crossing point at Hatya or across a small dam on the Orontes River known as the Friendship Bridge that aid agencies have used.

Human Rights Watch obtained satellite images of both crossing points and of four security posts with large tents set up on basketball courts in the immediate border area where asylum seekers said they were held before being sent back to Syria.

The findings follow a February 3 Human Rights Watch report on Turkey’s border killings and summary pushbacks of asylum seekers between May and December 2017 and similar findings in November 2015 and May 2016

In response to the February 3 report, a senior Turkish official repeated his government’s long-standing response to such reports, pointing out that Turkey has taken in millions of Syrian refugees. Human Rights Watch described its latest findings in a letter on March 15 to Turkey’s interior minister, requesting comment by March 21.

Turkey is hosting over 3.5 million Syrian refugees, according to the UN refugee agency. Turkey deserves credit and support for its generosity and is entitled to secure its border with Syria.

However, Turkey is also obliged to respect the principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits countries from returning anyone to a place where they face a real risk of persecution, torture, or inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. This includes a prohibition on rejecting asylum seekers at borders that would expose them to such threats. Turkey is also obliged to respect international norms on the use of lethal force as well as the rights to life and bodily integrity.

Turkey insists that it respects the principle of nonrefoulement. “Syrians are accepted and taken under protection in Turkey and Syrians who have entered into Turkey somehow and demand protection are definitely not sent back and the reception and registration procedures are carried out,” the DGMM’s statement in response to this report said. “Syrians coming to Turkey are under no circumstances forced to go back to their own country; their registration is continuing and these foreigners can benefit from many rights and services in Turkey.”

As of December, Turkey had completed almost 800 kilometers of a planned 911-kilometer border barrier with Syria, which consists of a rocket-resistant concrete wall and steel fence. The satellite imagery Human Rights Watch obtained of the area where Syrians say they crossed with smugglers shows areas without a wall.

Turkey’s continued refusal since at least mid-2015 to allow Syrian asylum seekers to cross the border legally has been reinforced by a controversial EU-Turkey March 2016 migration agreement to curb refugee and migration flows to the European Union. The EU should instead be working with Turkey to keep its borders open to refugees, providing financial support for Turkey’s refugee efforts, and sharing responsibility by stepping up resettlement of refugees from Turkey, Human Rights Watch said.

“The EU should stop ignoring Turkey’s mass refugee deportations,” Simpson said. “The meeting in Bulgaria is a clear opportunity for the EU governments and institutions to change course and ramp up efforts to help Turkey protect Syrian refugees including through increased refugee resettlement.”

For more details about Turkey’s mass border pushbacks and the situation displaced Syrians face in Syria’s Idlib governorate, please see below.

Turkey’s land borders are legally protected by army border units of the Turkish Armed Forces. Gendarmerie also on duty at the borders operate under the authority of the land forces command. There are also gendarmerie stations near the borders charged with regular rural policing activities. This report refers to border guards without specifying if they are soldiers or gendarmes since many of those interviewed did not provide or do not have such specific information.

Between February 14 and 20, Human Rights Watch interviewed the 21 Syrian asylum seekers who had tried multiple times to cross the border. Human Rights Watch interviewed them by cell phone and explained the purpose of the interviews and gave assurances of anonymity. We also received interviewees’ consent to describe their experiences.

They described 137 incidents – 107 of them between January 1 and March 6 – in which Turkish border guards intercepted them at the border near the Syrian town of Darkush and held them at nearby security posts and then deported them back to Syria with hundreds, and at times thousands, of others.

A man from Deir al-Zour governorate who fled Syrian government attacks on his village in September 2017 said border guards intercepted him nine times in January and the first half of February in border areas close to the al-Dureyya displaced people’s camp in Syria.

Describing three incidents in February, he said:

Each time they insulted the men, calling them “Syrian traitors.” They forced some of them to collect firewood. Then they took all of us in military trucks to a basketball court at a security post near the Hatya border gate. There was also a big tent there. They put us all in the tent and kept us overnight. They didn’t give us any food or water or let us go to a proper toilet. There were so many in the tent, that we were spilling out into the open of the basketball court. We were hundreds of people. The next morning, they took us all back to the border in buses.

A Turkish security base about 250 meters from the Turkey-Syria border, 2 kilometres south of the Turkish village, Saribük. The base has a basketball court and large tent, as described in statements by deported Syrian asylum seekers who said they were held in such a location before being deported. © 2018 Digital Globe Three Syrians said they were deported with thousands of others. A man from al-Hamediyah who said Turkish border guards intercepted him 11 times between September and January said that he was usually deported with about 500 other people. However, he said that on one occasion, in January, the border guards gave the people they had intercepted trying to cross from Syria numbers and his was 3,890. He said he was one of the last to be put on buses and taken to the border.

Many people referred to two deportation points that they said were between 10 and 30 minutes’ drive from the security posts where border guards had held them: one was an informal border crossing at Hatya, and the other was a small dam on the Orontes River called “Friendship Bridge.” Human Rights Watch obtained satellite imagery of both crossing points and of four security posts in the immediate border area where asylum seekers said they crossed into Turkey.

A woman from Hama governorate who repeatedly tried to cross the border said she was deported six times during the first two weeks of February with groups she estimated to be between 50 and 600 other Syrians:

The second time, on around February 4, the border guards took us to a military post and put us in a big tent with 200 other people they had already caught. Four hours later, at about 8 a.m., they put us in large buses and drove us to the Friendship Bridge. There they told us to get out and walk across the river back into Syria.

The satellite imagery Human Rights Watch obtained confirms there are gaps in the wall the full length of the Orontes River, west of the Syrian town of Salkeen, and at various points between the southern tip of where the river meets the border and the Hatya border crossing.

Three Syrians said Turkish police had deported them or relatives from the town of Antakya, about 20 kilometers west of the Syrian border.

A man from Hama governorate described what happened to his wife:

The Turks sent my wife back from Antakya twice. She told me everything that happened. The first time was a week ago [about February 10]. The smugglers drove her and about 10 other people from the border near the Orontes River up to Reyhanli and from there they drove to Antakya. They reached the edge of Antakya at about 6 a.m. Turkish police shot at the car’s wheels to force it to stop. They beat the driver and immediately put my wife and the others in a police van and drove them to the border at Bab al-Hawa.

My wife crossed again four days later. The smugglers took her and about 10 others to a small house in a Turkish village near the border and then drove to a house in Antakya where there were already about 50 other Syrians who said they had arrived that night. Suddenly Turkish police arrived, at about 7 a.m. They wrote down their names and took photos. They put them in a big truck and took them to the Bab al-Hawa crossing. They held them there for the whole day and then sent them back to Syria.

Nine Syrians interviewed described a total of 10 shooting incidents by Turkish border guards between September and March in which they said 14 people were killed and 18 injured.

In mid-February, a man from Deir al-Zour governorate said that in the previous five weeks he had tried four times to reach Turkey with his wife and five children. The first three times, he said, Turkish border guards deported them. The fourth time they turned back because Turkish border guards shot at their group as they approached the border:

A few hundred meters from the border near the al-Dureyya [displacement] camp the Turks suddenly started shooting at our group. They killed an 8-year-old girl and injured two men, one in a leg and the other in the stomach. I helped the man shot in the stomach turn back with the rest of us while the others carried the girl and helped the other man. Later the smugglers told us that a 13-year-old girl in another group trying to cross at the next time had also been killed during the shooting.

A man evacuated with his wife and baby from Aleppo in late 2016 said he unsuccessfully attempted to cross with them to Turkey three times near the al-Dureyya camp in September 2017 and January 2018 and was deported with hundreds of others the first two times. During the third attempt, in January, he said:

The border guards shot at us and injured my wife in her stomach and leg. She was pregnant and the baby died. They also injured two men and a 5-year-old boy, who was shot in the leg. We took my wife to a hospital in Syria near the border. Her heart stopped twice, but she lived. They couldn’t operate on her, so they sent her to Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa gate for surgery. They amputated her leg and removed her womb. They didn’t let me cross with her but a few days later a smuggler helped me and my daughter cross to Turkey.

Human Rights Watch also spoke with a doctor in a Syrian hospital near the Turkish border west of the town of Idlib who said that between August 1 and February 16, the hospital had received 66 people with gunshot-related injuries who said they had been shot while trying to cross the Turkish border.

According to the UN, about 2.65 million people are currently in Idlib governorate, over 1.75 million of whom have been displaced from elsewhere in Idlib or other parts of Syria, including almost 400,000 displaced since December. Civilians in Idlib have faced years of conflict. In September, Russian and Syrian forces began a fresh offensive in Idlib, three days after Russia, Iran, and Turkey had agreed to a ceasefire and “de-escalation” zone in the province and parts of Hama and western Aleppo. Human Rights Watch documented that attacks in September struck markets and populated residential areas and caused thousands of people to flee to displacement sites near the Turkish border.

Hostilities in Idlib halted on October 8 after Turkey deployed monitors there, but restarted in late December. In January, the Russian-Syrian military alliance carried out airstrikes to support Syrian ground troops. Some attacks involved prohibited weapons and targeted hospitals.

The Atma displaced persons camp on the Syrian side of Turkey’s border wall, where on February 6, 2018, during an exchange of fire between Turkish and Kurdish forces, a shell hit killing a girl and injuring seven others. © 2017 Reuters/Osman Orsal On January 21, Turkey started a military offensive in Kurdish-held Afrin putting displaced civilians at risk. Turkish and Kurdish forces have shelled each other on either side of Syria’s Atma displacement camp, on the Turkish border, which shelters 60,000 people.

Witnesses said that on February 6, during the fighting, shells hit the camp, killing an 8-year-old girl and injuring seven other civilians.

Human Rights Watch interviewed seven displaced Syrians about the incident. They all said it left their children terrified of the shelling and unable to sleep.

A father of seven children from Hama who lived close to where the shell landed on February 6 said:

I was there when it happened and rushed to help. I heard a young girl had been killed, but I only saw two who were injured. One had lost an arm and a leg and the other was blinded. I was so scared the same might happen to my children, we fled the camp and went to live in a field near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing. But we couldn’t stay there all alone, without help, so we had to come back to the camp. We are all scared now, all the time.

A father of four children said the incident had so shaken his family, he had returned to his still conflict-riven home town of Kafr Zita in Hama governorate because all other displacement camps in Idlib were full. As his house had been destroyed, he said, he was living in a field on the edge of the town and struggling to survive: “There is still shelling here but if we die, it’s better to die at home.”

Human Rights Watch also spoke with five Syrians who had been repeatedly displaced in recent months within Idlib to escape the shifting front line and who, as of mid-February, were living as close as possible to the Turkish border in the hope of escaping the fighting.

The UN says that since December, the violence has displaced at least 385,000 people who have joined 2.65 million other civilians, including 1.35 million civilians displaced in the past few years.

In mid-February, Human Rights Watch interviewed two aid officials working in Idlib governorate. One summarized the dire humanitarian situation:

There is no more room anywhere for people displaced in the past few months. Displacement camps are completely full and we [humanitarians] do not have the resources to properly address basic needs of water, food, heating, health care, and education. Rent has skyrocketed so people end up living in the tens of thousands on the edge of towns and villages in fields in makeshift camps. There is simply no way the aid agencies can help all these people. At best they can give very limited help once in a while to some of them, and it is not done in an organized way. There is suffering everywhere, in every camp and in every village.

The 56 displaced Syrians in Idlib that Human Rights Watch interviewed, including 42 displaced by the recent violence, all described the extremely difficult conditions they had faced in Idlib in previous months. The newly displaced said they had heard that displacement camps were completely full and that they could not afford to pay the extremely high rents in the towns and villages in the area. They ended up living in waterlogged fields across Idlib governorate, often with other families in makeshift tents made from sacks and other material sewed together, because they could not afford to buy proper tents.

They said they struggled to find food and had to pay high fees for water, delivered by trucks. They either had seen no one from an aid agency, or those who had, said they were unable to help or had promised help but hadn’t returned.

Turkish authorities have allowed Turkish and international aid groups based in Turkey to cross into Syria and join Syrian aid groups to distribute tents and other assistance to Syrians in camps in border areas. Human Rights Watch said that allowing much-needed cross-border aid is important, but does not absolve Turkey of its obligation to allow Syrian civilians fleeing fighting to seek protection in Turkey.

Human Rights Watch has documented that, since at least mid-August 2015, Turkish border guards enforcing the country’s March 2015 border closure have deported Syrians trying to reach Turkey. In April and May 2016, Human Rights Watch documented Turkish border guards shooting and beating Syrian asylum seekers trying to cross to Turkey, resulting in deaths and serious injuries, and sending those who managed to cross back to Syria. In February 2018, Human Rights Watch reported on further killings, injuries and pushbacks that happened in the second half of 2017.

On May 20, 2016, Human Rights Watch called on UN member states and UN agencies attending the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul to press the Turkish authorities to reopen Turkey’s border to Syrian asylum seekers. But neither the European Commission nor any European Union member state – or any other country – has publicly pressed Turkey to do so, while UN agencies have also remained publicly silent.

The world’s – and in particular the EU’s – silence over Turkey’s breach of the cornerstone of international refugee law condones Turkey’s border abuses.

The EU’s failure to take in more Syrian asylum seekers and refugees also contributes to the pressure on Turkey. The EU should swiftly fulfill its own commitments to relocate Syrian and other asylum seekers from Greece and, together with other countries, it should also expand safe and legal channels for people to reach safety from Turkey, including through increased refugee resettlement, humanitarian admissions, humanitarian and other visas, and facilitated family reunification.</s>European Union leaders are set to slam Turkey over its sea disputes with Greece and Cyprus on Thursday, in a move that could anger Ankara days before a planned summit meant to mend bilateral relations.

In a draft obtained by Bloomberg and due to be released at the EU summit in Brussels, the bloc says it “strongly condemns Turkey’s continued illegal actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea and underlines its full solidarity with Cyprus and Greece.”

The planned statement follows Germany’s scolding of Turkey for its military operations in northwest Syria, and adds to a series of disputes that include Turkey’s purchase of a Russian missile defense system. Heated exchanges have so far had little material impact, beyond symbolic measures.

While EU-Turkey relations soured last year amid alarm in Europe over Erdogan’s crackdown on political opponents, the bloc has been keen to to ensure that Ankara continues to uphold an agreement to prevent an influx of Mideast refugees and has refused to pull the plug on long-stalled Turkish membership negotiations.

“The EU and Turkish authorities have been playing a game of chicken over which side will be the first to pull the plug on Turkey’s accession process,” Steven Blockmans, head of EU foreign policy at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, said in email. “The caution with which the EU proceeds also reveals European leaders’ reluctance to damage cooperation on certain policy areas -- from security to migration -- the risk of which Erdogan keeps reminding them.”

EU leaders are expected to hold a broad discussion on Turkey on Thursday evening. Last month, they threatened to cancel a summit with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan planned for March 26 in Varna, Bulgaria, because of tensions with Cyprus over energy exploration.

That was after a Turkish navy prevented drilling by Italy-based Eni SpA in waters that are part of Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone, forcing the company to relocate its vessel. A few days earlier, a Turkish warship had rammed a Greek coast-guard vessel off Aegean islets over which Ankara claims sovereignty.

The Greek government also protests the arrest and continuing detention of two of its soldiers who says they wandered off across the border during a routine patrol last month. On the other hand, Ankara has slammed a Greek court decision to refuse extradition of eight Turkish officers who sought asylum in Greece after a mid-2016 failed coup attempt against Erdogan.

While mock dogfights over the Aegean are a routine occurrence, Erdogan’s increasingly assertive stance over Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone and ever more frequent clashes over Greece’s territorial water claims raise the risk of a repeat on the events of January 1996, when the two traditional foes came to the brink of an all-out war.
The European Union calls on Turkey to cease military actions aimed at enforcing Turkish claims to disputed natural gas deposits. The bloc also asks Turkey to release detained EU citizens.