Rome, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot “blackmail” Europe on migration, Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Tuesday after Erdogan warned that “millions” of migrants would soon head to the European Union.
“There can be no blackmail. We need to dialogue to find solutions,” Di Maio said in an interview with Italian daily La Stampa.
Turkey said on Friday that migrants could leave for the EU and thousands have since massed at the Greek border, sparking fears of a new influx like that of 2015 when over a million migrants entered Europe.
EU leaders have accused Erdogan of using the threat of a new migrant influx to pressure them into backing his incursions into Syria. EU foreign ministers will discuss the issue this week at an emergency summit, Di Maio said.
“We are working together with other European countries in great unison. There is the will to find a solution rather than creating new problems,” he said.
Turkey has launched a military operation in Idlib in northwestern Syria to try and repel the government’s offensive in the country’s last rebel-held bastion, an assault that has caused millions of people to flee.
