A current influx of thousands of migrants attempting to cross into Greece via the Turkish border will soon swell significantly, Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu says.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The number of migrants who entered Greece has reached more than 143,000, Soylu claimed at a press conference in the eastern city of Elazig on Saturday.
The figure could not be independently verified.
Greece says it is not allowing any entries, either by land or sea.
"This is just the beginning. You should watch what will happen next. What has happened so far is nothing," Soylu said.
"Mitsotakis has no capacity to hold the border (gates)," Soylu said, in response to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' remarks that a 2016 deal between the European Union and Turkey to curb the inflow of migrants "is now dead".
Mitsotakis blamed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the deal's collapse in an interview with broadcaster CNN late on Friday.
"We categorically reject Prime Minister Mitsotakis' allegations," Erdogan's communications director Fahrettin Altun said in a written response to CNN.
The EU has failed to keep its promises, Altun said, adding Ankara had no option but to divert its focus away from stopping the refugee flow to Europe to "a potential influx" from Syria's Idlib.
Soylu said more migrants will be able to move towards the border thanks to favourable weather conditions and increased Turkish security measures at the border to stem pushbacks.
Warmer weather and a low discharge at the river Evros, known as Meric in Turkey, means migrants "can easily walk through" the nearly 200-kilometre-long border with Greece, he said.
Erdogan's government instigated the present crisis on the Greek-Turkish borders by spurring on and even assisting migrants and refugees to leave and go to Europe, Mitsotakis has charged.
Turkey stopped blocking migrants from the land and maritime border with Greece a week ago, saying it can not handle a possible new influx from Syria's last main battleground of Idlib.
A ceasefire holds in the region after a deal on Thursday between Turkey and Russia.
Since then, beefed-up Greek security forces have clashed with people trying to cross the border and continue on to wealthy European countries every day.
Australian Associated Press
