(Newswire.net — March 4, 2020) — The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that millions of migrants and refugees will move to Europe as Turkey open its borders.
Erdogan said that Turkey could no longer comply with the EU agreement of 2016, under which the country prevented refugees from entering Europe. Hundreds of thousands of people from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries are now using Turkey as safe passage to Europe.
Greece is the closest entering point for migrants and refugees who want to go to Europe. Greek troops are trying to protect borders but small boats with migrants are managing to get through. Some 10.000 migrants reached the Greek islands closes to Turkey in just a few days. However, not all of them succeed.
One boy died Monday when a boat with migrants near Lesbos Island capsized, Greek police said. In other news, a Turkish official accused Greek authorities of killing a Syrian man who tried to cross the border on Monday. The government in Athens denied this claim.
In one video, whose authenticity has not been confirmed, a man with a bloodied neck is seen lying on the ground.
Since December of last year, almost a million people have fled to the Syrian-Turkish border, all because of fierce fighting in the Idlib area. There are many civilians, woman and children among them, but also many ISIL fighters who are trying to get to some of the richest EU countries and form terrorist cells.
There are currently about 3.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, as well as migrants from other countries such as Afghanistan, who will make their way to Europe.
As Turkey opened its borders to migrants on their way to Europe, Erdogan noted: “Hundreds of thousands of refugees have crossed our border, there will soon be millions.”
Muslims are a relatively small minority in Europe, making up roughly 5% of the population. However, Sweden, France and Germany are countries that have a higher Muslim share of the population.
Deifying the EU law on migrants and refugees some countries are closing their borders. Hungary built a wall along its south border and Poland is adamant that not even one Muslim migrant is allowed entrance to the country.
“We don’t want Poland being taken over by Muslims, Buddhists, or someone else … and no one will ever force us to take Muslims, Buddhists, non-believers in huge numbers,” said ruling conservative party PiS’s Dominik Tarczynski. He added that Christians and Muslims do not share the same values.
The higher fertility rate of Muslims could significantly change the demographic situation in Europe. The average European family has up to two children and there is a growing tendency of families that have no children at all. Islam allows polygamy leading to average family having 7-8 children.
What could happen in the not so distant future is easy to understand. Here are some historical facts: In North Macedonia (Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia) the Muslim Albanian population is no longer a minority and the Albanian language became official. In the Serbian southern province of Kosovo, refugees from Albania outnumbered the Serbian population up to the point they became a majority and then used terrorism to ethnically clean the region. They were rewarded by NATO countries with military help and recognition of their unilaterally proclaimed independence, punishing Serbia because of its ties with Russia.
The move was a huge historical precedent that has long term consequences to Europe whose social fabric is now threatened.
The Muslim population in the European Union is projected to jump from 25 to 35 million between 2015 and 2035.