Turkey on Wednesday slammed comments by European Commission Vice President for Promoting the European Way of Life Margaritis Schinas, who said Turkey had tried to exploit refugees for political gain, the Kathimerini daily reported.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement that Schinas’s statements to Euronews, “are more like the political discourse of members of the Greek government than an EU official.”
“The EU Commission, which should be the protector of the founding agreements of the European Union, has not started a serious examination about the violations and repulsions at EU borders,” he added.
Aksoy referred to reports on alleged illegal practices on the Greek-Turkish border and therefore the EU’s border, stressing that the European Commission must investigate them.
He reiterated allegations of the killing of Pakistani refugee Muhammad Gulzar by Greek border guards and the alleged pushback of migrants from Greece in the Aegean Sea and at the Evros River “before the eyes of the EU agencies,” as well as the “continuous rejection of asylum applications” by Greece.