{"id":22030,"date":"2019-10-15T13:49:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T17:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=22030"},"modified":"2019-10-16T10:36:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T14:36:26","slug":"refugees-turkey-kurds-asylum-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/10\/15\/refugees-turkey-kurds-asylum-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey Threatens to Flood Europe with 3.6 Million Syrian Refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last Thursday, Turkey\u2019s Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threatened<\/a> to \u201copen the gates and send 3.6 million Syrian refugees into Europe\u201d if the European Union dares to call Turkey\u2019s invasion of northeastern Syria an actual \u201cinvasion.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat comes in the wake of President Trump\u2019s decision to move<\/a> approximately fifty to one hundred U.S. troops \u2013 following a call with Erdogan last Sunday \u2013 out of the way of a planned Turkish incursion into northeastern Syria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of how one judges the president\u2019s decision on Syria, Erdogan\u2019s blackmail attempt should gravely concern both Europeans and Americans. After all, the Islamist Turkish leader had threatened to \u201copen the gates\u201d before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 3.6 million figure is much larger than the approximately 1.3 million<\/a> migrants\/asylum-seekers that poured into Europe in 2015, either through Turkey, across the Mediterranean from North Africa, or the EU\u2019s eastern frontier. That wave followed the outbreak of the bloody civil war in Syria and the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, both of which occurred in 2011. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A vast majority \u2013 almost one million<\/a> \u2013 headed to Germany, encouraged by chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s open-arms policy. Although Merkel waxed optimistic, telling Germans that \u201cwe can do this\u201d (Wir schaffen das<\/em>), her people were increasingly skeptical<\/a>. That is because the refugee\/migrant wave was followed by a wave of Islamist terrorist attacks<\/a> and sexual assaults<\/a> and rapes as well as other crimes<\/a>. The refugee crisis also prompted the Obama administration to increase refugee caps and take in more refugees<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Europe is still struggling to integrate the previous migrant wave, a fresh one, nearly three time larger, is likely unsustainable and will certainly destabilize the continent. If Erdogan \u2013 who is not a particularly trustworthy partner \u2013 does \u201copen the gates,\u201d the Europeans, international pro-mass-migration NGOs, and many American politicians (mainly Democrats, as well as some Republicans) will no doubt plead for the United States to take in some of the refugees and to massively increase refugee caps. (In fact, a bipartisan group of Senators has already been pressuring<\/a> the Trump administration to bring in more refugees.) So far, that scenario has not materialized, but it continues to hang over the West like the Sword of Damocles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what can the U.S. do to preempt a potential deluge that would undoubtedly affect our country as well? First, the United States and Europe must lead an effort to protect vulnerable populations who, like the Kurds, might be imperiled by a Turkish invasion, or by a resurgent ISIS. This is best accomplished creating safe zones within Syria. This is unlikely given the President\u2019s wish to leave<\/a>, but that may change due to public pressure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat of crippling sanctions<\/a> against Turkey is another powerful tool in our arsenal. So far, the President has hit Turkey with sanctions<\/a>, hiking steel tariffs to 50 percent, immediately halting trade negotiations (for a $100 billion deal) with Ankara, and sanctioning Turkish officials in response to Turkey\u2019s actions in northern Syria. In addition, we should work with the Europeans \u2013 and in particular with Greece and Bulgaria, which border Turkey \u2013 to harden border security and preempt a potential migrant wave. Troop and naval exercises along Turkey\u2019s land and maritime borders with our Greek and Bulgarian NATO allies may also send the appropriate message to Ankara \u2013 that the U.S. will actively oppose any attempts by Erdogan to cynically use Syrian refugees as pawns in his game \u2013 and would beef up the EU\u2019s emergency border defenses in southeastern Europe. Erdogan has made it clear that the U.S. and the Europeans need a plan to avoid getting caught off-guard.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Thursday, Turkey\u2019s Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threatened to \u201copen the gates and send 3.6 million Syrian refugees into Europe\u201d if the European Union dares to call Turkey\u2019s invasion of northeastern Syria an actual \u201cinvasion.\u201d The threat comes in the wake of President Trump\u2019s decision to move approximately fifty to one hundred U.S. troops<\/p>\n

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