At Prague meeting, Tsipras urges EU to crack down on Turkey

PRAGUE — Greek opposition leader SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras told European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell on the sidelines of a bloc meeting in Prague that it was time to push back the Turkish aggression.

With elections looming in mid-2023, Tspiras – who was ousted in July 2019 snap elections by New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis – fired shots at his rival and called for a tougher stance against Turkey .

Greece’s state-run Athens-Macedonia news agency AMNA said that during the meeting, the SYRIZA leader said the EU should stop publishing tweets and statements about Turkey’s provocations and use sanctions against Turkey. square.

He said this was justified due to Turkey’s challenge to Greece’s sovereignty, especially over the seas between them and the push for genuine diplomacy at the same time, the report also said.

Tsipras also said the EU could not stand idly by while Turkey let human traffickers continue to send refugees and migrants to Greece, especially to the islands, with dozens of people coming to Greece. were drowning trying to cross.
Turkey allowed this in violation of a swap deal with the EU essentially suspended in 2016, in which the country is believed to contain some 4.4 million people who have traveled there to flee war, conflict and economic difficulties in their country of origin.

They wanted to travel to more prosperous EU countries before the bloc closed its borders to them, leaving most to try to get to Greece to seek asylum, as well as Italy, Spain and Malta.