Turkey

ANKARA, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkish and British foreign ministers discussed on Tuesday the ongoing Turkish operation in the Syrian province of Idlib and the migratory flow to Europe, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

During a joint press conference with his visiting British counterpart Dominic Raab in Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu urged Greece and the other EU countries to respect international law in treating refugees.

Istanbul, Mar 3 (AFP/PTI) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Monday that "millions" of migrants would soon head for Europe, drawing accusations from EU leaders that he is trying to pressure them into backing his incursions into Syria.

Turkey gave the green light to refugees and migrants on Friday to leave for the European Union and thousands have since massed at the Greek border, triggering fears of an influx like that which poisoned European politics in 2015.

02 Mar 2020; MEMO: A Syrian refugee was killed earlier today by Greek border police following Turkey’s policy change which opened its border crossings to Europe. It is the first reported death of a refugee in this latest phase of the crisis.

02 Mar 2020; MEMO: Some 76,358 migrants and asylum seekers have crossed the Pazarkule Border Crossing and entered Greece, Turkey’s Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, announced yesterday.

On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that his country would open its doors to refugees wishing to cross into Europe, stressing that Ankara has no capacity to absorb a new wave of migrants.

2 March 2020; AFP: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Monday to keep the doors open for migrants heading for Europe, as he mounted pressure on Western countries to give Turkey more assistance with the Syrian conflict.

Erdogan also said he hoped to reach a deal on a ceasefire in Syria when he meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin later in the week following increasing clashes in the last rebel hold-out of Idlib.

He warned Europe that it will have to shoulder its part of the migrant "burden".

ANKARA/AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian government forces battled to recapture a strategic rebel-held town in Idlib province on Monday and a Turkish official said Ankara would continue to strike President Bashar al-Assad’s troops after escalating its military operations at the weekend.

Syrian state television broadcast live footage from inside Saraqeb, which lies on the country’s main north-south highway, and said it was under government control. Rebels denied the report, saying they still held the town despite heavy shelling.

ANKARA, March 1. /TASS/: Turkish and Russian Foreign Ministers, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Sergey Lavorv, on Sunday had telephone talks ahead of a meeting between the two presidents, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Vladimir Putin of Russia, a source in the Turkish foreign ministry told TASS.

"Our minister had talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. They discussed [various] topics ahead of a meeting between the leaders [of the two nations]," he said.

ANKARA, March 1. /TASS/: Journalists of Sputnik Turkiye, the Turkish bureau of Russia’s Sputnik news agency, have been released after being questioned by the police in Ankara, the journalists’ relatives told TASS on Sunday.

"All of them have been released after being questioned," one of them said.

ISTANBUL/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Turkey shot down two Syrian warplanes over Idlib on Sunday and struck a military airport well beyond its frontlines in a sharp escalation of its military operations following the death of dozens of Turkish soldiers last week.

Ankara has ramped up its attacks, including drone strikes, against the Russian-backed Syrian forces since Thursday, when 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in an air strike by Damascus.

01 Mar 2020; MEMO: Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz hinted on Saturday that borders could be closed across the Balkans in response to a rush of migrants towards Greece from Turkey, echoing action taken during Europe’s 2015-16 migration crisis, Reuters reports.