The Guardian, 7 February 2016-The European Union has urged Turkey to open its borders to thousands of Syrians fleeing an onslaught by government forces and intense Russian airstrikes.
Turkey kept its Oncupinar border crossing closed on Saturday despite a significant increase in the number of arrivals to the European gateway in the past 48 hours.
As many as 70,000 people are expected to head for the border in the coming days, said Suleyman Tapsiz, governor of Turkey’s Kilis border province. There are already between 30,000 and 35,000 displaced Syrians on the Syrian side of the border being cared for by Turkey. Aid workers said the refugees were being directed to nearby camps.
Fifteen Syrians injured in bombings near Aleppo were allowed into
Turkey through the crossing late on Friday night
 “Our doors are not closed, but at the moment there is no need to host such people inside our borders,” Tapsiz said.
Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said after a meeting with EU foreign ministers in Amsterdam that his country would maintain its open border policy. Approximately 2.5 million Syrians are now living in Turkey.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the support being provided by the union to Turkey was aimed at guaranteeing that Ankara could protect and host all Syrians fleeing the war-torn country. On Thursday, the EU approved €3bn (£2.3bn) to help Turkey cope with the number of people.
EU foreign ministers have discussed with their counterparts from Balkan states possible ways of stemming the flow of people through the region. More than one million refugees, mostly Syrian, have arrived in the EU in the past 12 months. Most have crossed into Greece from Turkey before making their way through the Balkans to Germany and other countries such as Sweden.