UN fears for thousands of civilians if Syrian troops encircle Aleppo

Merkel said that Turkey and Germany will push at the United Nations for everyone to keep to a U.N. resolution passed in December that calls on all sides to halt without delay attacks on the civilian population.

Merkel was in Ankara for talks on how to reduce the influx of migrants into Europe, mostly via a perilous boat crossing from Turkey to Greece.

The Turkish government fears that fierce fighting in Syria’s Aleppo province will spark the arrival of up to 600,000 refugees at its border in a “worst case scenario”, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus has said.

Turkey, already home to 2.5 million Syrian refugees, says it has reached its capacity to absorb refugees.

(IHH via AP). This photo provided by Turkish Islamic aid group IHH, shows a temporary refugee camp for displaced Syrians in northern Syria, near Bab al-Salameh border crossing with Turkey, Monday, Feb. 8, 2016.

They then advanced towards the Turkish border, and by Monday were reportedly only 25km (16 miles) away – the closest they have been since late 2013.

There would be no letup in an army advance, which aimed “to liberate cities and villages that were controlled by the terrorists for 3-1/2 years, and also an attempt to liberate the city of Aleppo from the crimes of terrorism”, Shaaban said.

“I can’t say for sure how long it will be until Aleppo falls to the regime, or Iran and Russian Federation”, he told CBS News.

One bearded man in a camouflage coat, who looked to be in his mid-thirties, pleaded with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to open a humanitarian corridor into Turkey.

“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.

Lavrov shrugged off criticism that Russian Federation had contributed to the collapse of peace talks in Geneva last week by providing air cover for a Syrian government advance north of Aleppo. “That option is now being crushed”, said Rami Jarrah, an activist who recently left Aleppo after producing a series of video reports documenting the offensive by the regime and Russian forces.

Kurtulmuş also said that Turkey has been watching the developments in the Syrian areas of Latakia, Idlib and Hama, especially after the Russian jets began bombing sorties and the regime forces launched a land operation in the direction of the Turkish border.

Meanwhile, despite growing global pressure, Turkey is keeping its border crossings closed.

Russian Federation has insisted its warplanes target the Islamic State and other extremist groups and has firmly denied that they hit civilian areas. “Why don’t you take them in?”

More than 20,000 are already waiting at the Bab al-Salam (Syrian) side of Öncüp?nar border gate in Kilis Province on the Turkey/Syria border, which is now closed.

“We Syrians will be stuck between two evils if Turkey does not open the doors”, said Khaled, 30, trying to return to Aleppo to rescue his wife and children.

Merkel stuck to her insistence that Europe will need to accept “quotas” of refugees arriving by legal channels as part of “burden-sharing”, and that the system needs to be worked out soon.

Germany and Turkey have pledged to boost cooperation over the handling of the refugee crisis during Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Ankara visit.

Mahmoud Rashawi, an activist in Aleppo, described a sense of despair as residents of the city feel abandoned by the worldwide community.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn has been urging Turkey to cease the blockade, and allow refugees through the country. He did not elaborate, however, and it was not clear if he was referring to the thousands of Syrian Turkmens who were admitted into Turkey earlier this month.