Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Petr Bystron has called on Germany and the European Union to halt payments to the Turkish government following threats by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Mr Bystron called on Brussels and Berlin to stop paying the Erdoğan government billions of euros after the Turkish leader threatened to send 3.6 million Syrian migrants to Europe if the EU interfered with Turkish military operations in northern Syria.
“The EU pays Turkey €3 billion every year for the so-called Refugee Pact, while Recep Tayyip Erdoğan still sends thousands of illegal migrants to the Greek isles and threatens to swamp Europe with even more,” Bystron said in a press release.
“The German taxpayer largely has to pay these astronomical sums, so the Turkish tyrant can maintain the largest military in Europe, make territorial claims against Greece, Syria, and Iraq, and now wage a brutal war of aggression against Kurdish civilians in northern Syria,” he added.
According to the NGO Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 60,000 civilians have already been displaced as a result of the Turkish incursion into Syrian territory.
Turkey, Hezbollah Order EU to ‘Kneel’ or ‘We Open the Gates and Send 3.6 Million Refugees Your Way’ https://t.co/xyRxrdVdak
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 11, 2019
“Germany and the EU must immediately halt all payments to Turkey and instead invest in our own border protection, or we will be guilty of supporting Turkey’s war crimes against the Kurds,” Bystron said.
On Monday, Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad entered into Kurdish areas after Kurdish leaders called on Assad to aid them against Turkish forces.
The move has led to Erdoğan calling for aid from fellow NATO members, with the Turkish president saying: “We are a NATO ally… They need to stand by us.”
The European Union, however, has been firm in condemning the military actions of the Turkish government. EU member state foreign ministers have agreed to stop the export of arms to Turkey and have threatened sanctions on the near-east nation for drilling off the coast of Cyprus.
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