Section:GDN 1N PaGe:37 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 18:24 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Friday 6 September 2019 The Guardian •
World^37
Erdoğan threatens
to ‘open gates’ and
let Syrian refugees
leave for the west
Peter Beaumont and
Helena Smith Athens
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan, is threatening to “open the
gates” to allow Syrian refugees to leave
Turkey for western countries unless a
controversial “safe zone” inside Syria
is established soon.
Erdoğan’s comments c ome amid
growing tension with Washington over
delays in establishing the safe zone ,
not least over the fate of a key US-
allied Kurdish militia, the YPG, which
Ankara regards as a terrorist organisa-
tion. Ankara has been threatening to
move its troops unilaterally into the
safe zone unless progress is made.
With Turkey hosting about 3.6 mil-
lion Syrian refugees, Erdoğan’s threat
has raised the spectre of a surge of
people into Europe that could dwarf
even the recent migration crisis at its
peak.
The warning was delivered in
remarks to officials of his ruling
party, as humanitarian organisations
warned that conditions in the besieged
Syrian rebel enclave of Idlib were
“Hobbesian” and approaching the
“stone age”.
Erdoğan said: “We will be forced to
open the gates. We cannot be forced to
handle the burden alone .”
In Greece, the authorities have
reported a huge surge in recent num-
bers arriving on Aegean islands facing
the Turkish coast. More than 12,000
people landed in July and August.
Last week about 650 arrived in a
single day on Lesbos, with the coun-
try’s civil protection minister telling
the Guardian that smugglers had
become increasingly brazen, deploy-
ing “much better and faster” boats to
make the crossing from Turkey.
Erdoğan has become increasingly
angry with Washington and the EU
over the issue of Syrian refugees,
claiming that Turkey has spent $40b n
supporting them, and criticising
western countries and the European
Union for failing to live up to their
promises.
Under a 2016 deal, the EU promised
Ankara €6b n in exchange for stronger
controls on refugees leaving Turkish
territory for Europe, but Erdoğan said
only €3bn had been received.
Since an agreement with the US
in early August to set up the contro-
versial safe zone, Turkey has been
frustrated by what it sees as Wash-
ington’s foot-dragging.
The safe zone was proposed last
year by Donald Trump, and fi nally
agreed on 7 August. Erdoğan has sold
it as a place where Syrian refugees in
Turkey could be relocated. But Ankara
and Washington have been at odds
over the fate of the YPG.
“We are saying we should form
such a safe zone that we, as Turkey,
can build towns in lieu of the tent cit-
ies here. Let’s carry them to the safe
zones there,” Erdoğan said in his
Ankara speech.
“Give us logistical support and we
can go build housing at 30 kilometres’
[20 miles ’] depth in northern Syria.
This way, we can provide them with
humane living conditions.
“This either happens or otherwise
we will have to open the gates .”
He added: “Either you will provide
support or, excuse us, but we are not
going to carry this weight alone. We
have not been able to get help from the
international community, namely the
European Union.”
The situation has become partic-
ularly pressing for Greece, which has
been thrust into the frontline as other
people-smuggling routes to Europe
have become more diffi cult.
Greece’s centre-right government,
which has vowed to take a tougher
stance than its leftist predecessor
in bolstering sea border patrols and
deporting “illegal migrants” back to
Turkey, was holding emergency talks
yesterday on how to better coordinate
its response to the swelling numbers.Germans urged
to name panda
cubs Hong and
Kong to protest
at crackdown
Kate Connolly
BerlinThey may have captured the public’s
imagination but the tiny pink panda
cubs born at Berlin zoo last week have
also spurred a debate about whether
panda diplomacy is blinding Germany
to China’s human rights record.
As people wait to catch a glimpse
of Meng Meng’s cubs, a competition
to name them has increased pressure
on the government of Angela Merkel,
who began a trip to Beijing with a large
economic delegation yesterday.
The tabloid newspaper Bild urged
Berliners to choose the names of Hong
and Kong for the cubs, in recognitionChina’s brutal politics that lies behind
these panda babies,” Bild said yester-
day. “Bild is demanding of the German
government that it reacts in a political
way to the birth of these small bears.”
A leading Hong Kong protester,
Joshua Wong, urg ed the zoo to call the
cubs “Democracy” and “Freedom”.
“That way Germany could send a very
clear signal to China,” Wong told Bild.
Germany has been renting six-year-
old Meng Meng and her companion,
nine-year-old Jiao Qing , from the Chi-
nese government for €1m a year since
2017, under a deal valid for 15 years.
Merkel and China’s president, Xi Jin-
ping, opened the bears’ enclosure
together amid huge pomp, in what was
billed as an expression of friendship.And the pandas have proved to be the
hoped-for visitor magnet. A record fi ve
million visitors came last year , with
queues to see the pandas often stretch-
ing through the zoo.
According to the agreement drawn
up between Berlin and Beijing, the
cubs offi cially belong to China, which
will probab l y reserve the right to name
them. The y are likely to be sent to
China within three to four years.
Vets and carers have fl own from
China to care for the cubs who, when
not being breastfed by their mother,
stay in incubators from a neonatal
unit. The zoo says the public will be
able to see them in November, “by
which time they should look more
like panda bears ”.▼ Hundreds of people were moved off
Lesbos this week to ease overcrowding
at the island’s Moria refugee camp
PHOTOGRAPH: AFP/GETTY IMAGES▲ Meng Meng’s two cubs have raised
questions about ‘panda diplomacy’of the protests in the territory. Read-
ers of Der Tagesspiegel favour Hong
and Kong over Yin and Yang, Ping and
Pong, Plisch and Plum, and Max and
Moritz, after a German children’s story.
“Bild is choosing to call the panda
cubs Hong and Kong because it’sRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws