The Greek Armed forces in tandem with Greek Police and the Hellenic Coast Guard are taking precautionary emergency measures after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday said he does not know what Athens would do if he were to open the Greek-Turkish border for refugees and migrants to flow into Greece.
“If we open our borders, I do not know what will happen to Greece, I do not know what Greece will do,” Erdogan said at a joint news conference with Hungarian PM Viktor Orban.
The statement came at a time that Ankara has been implicated in the huge crisis at the Belarus-Poland borders where refugees and migrants are pushing to enter Poland. Large numbers of refugees and migrants have been flying flown from Turkey to Minsk.
In March, 2020, Erdogan staged a similar, large operation at the Greek-Turkish border at Evros that was thwarted.
Heightened alert
A decision was taken, sources say, at an emergency meeting called today by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and attended by the chiefs of staff to bolster security at both Greece’s land and sea borders with Turkey.
It was decided that the Armed Forces be placed on a high state of alert and for border units to immediately report any indication of increased migrant flows at the borders.
Sources say that the Joint Chiefs of Staff are closely coordinating with the chief of Greek Police and the chief of the Hellenic Coast Guard in order to ensure the most effective possible monitoring of the borders, and deterrence if necessary.
