German Chancellor ‘Horrified’ by Russia’s Bombing of Syria

“Together, as Turkey and Germany, we will propose NATO’s engagement concerning all results of the refugee flow from Syria as an agenda item to NATO”, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announced on February 8 in a joint press conference with visitingGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel is meeting Davutoglu and other Turkish officials for talks on reducing the influx of migrants to Europe. It came as 33 people died off Turkey’s coast attempting to reach Greece in two separate tragedies on Tuesday.

The visit is Merkel’s second trip to Turkey in recent months as she visited the country on October 18 for talks again on the Syrian refugees, TRT World reports.

The memo, obtained by the Greek news site Euro2day, said Mr Juncker reminded Mr Erdogan that Europe had delayed a report that was critical of the human rights situation in Turkey until after crucial elections in November.

Davutoglu highlighted that Turkey stood ready to meet the needs of its Syrian brothers and take them in if necessary, as around 30,000 Syrian refugees have piled up at Turkey’s southern borders.

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”.

Without all parties sticking to past agreements, Merkel said, any progress in hoped-for Syrian peace talks in Geneva was hard to imagine.

“Some villages in Aleppo have been completely emptied of people”.

Separately, at least nine civilians and 16 separatist fighters were killed as security forces tried to root out Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, the army and the region’s biggest parliamentary party said on Monday. Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz said his country would not be able to take in this year the same amount of migrants – 90,000 – that they took in in 2015.

The assault around the city of Aleppo in northern Syria has prompted tens of thousands to flee towards Turkey, already sheltering more than 2.5 million Syrians.

Turkey and Germany have finally reached a middle ground regarding the countries’ stance on the ongoing refugee crisis.

Speaking at the Turkish border gate of Oncupinar, Hussein Bakri, the Syrian opposition’s interim minister in charge of refugees, appealed for global help to “stop the Russian enemy from bombing civilians and to provide aid to the displaced”. “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.

He also said the two countries’ aid organisations will co-operate in providing aid to the Syrians at the border.

“We don’t need anyone’s financial assistance”, Kurtulmus said.

Ankara has long argued that the only sustainable way to manage the migrant flow is to establish a “safe zone” inside Syria, an internationally protected area where displaced civilians can be given refuge without crossing into Turkey. “This is what causes refugees”.

“In particular, we will make a joint effort on the effective use of NATO’s observation and monitoring mechanisms on the border and in the Aegean”.

“I don’t think Europe can keep itself completely out of this”, Merkel said. In return, the European Union pledged the money to help improve the condition of refugees, and to grant political concessions to Turkey, including an easing of visa restrictions and the fast-tracking of its European Union membership process.

More than 900,000 people fleeing Syria, Afghanistan and other war-torn or impoverished countries arrived in Greece from Turkey past year, often risking their lives to cross the Aegean in overloaded boats.