MADRID, 16 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Deputy Minister of the Interior of Turkey, Ismail Çatakli, expressed his surprise and discomfort on Sunday at what he considers an interested use by Greece of a photograph of nude migrants in the Evros River to accuse Turkey.
“You are trying to have your persecution interpreted as if it were Turkish (…). Try to be more civilized!” Çatakli said in statements collected by the Turkish newspaper ‘Daily Sabah’.
Ankara thus claims that the photograph of naked migrants presented on Saturday by the Greek Immigration Minister, Notis Mitarachi, represents migrants who were robbed, stripped naked and abandoned at the border by Turkish security forces. The image has been published on the official Twitter account of Minister Mitarachi.
“You can’t find a single human rights violation in Turkey, so you try to present a picture of your own persecution as Turkey’s responsibility. Invest the time you spend on manipulations and lies in fulfilling human rights! Come on, It’s not difficult. Be more civilized!” Çatackli insisted.
The Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection reported the transfer on Friday by Border Guard troops of 92 migrants who were found naked on the banks of the Evros River and has accused Turkey of making “inhuman instrumentalization” of these people.
“Turkey continues to openly use immigrants as a tool to violate human rights, to violate international law,” he said, according to the Greek newspaper ‘Kathimerini’.
The immigrants told the Greek police that they had been transported to the Evros river in three vehicles by the Turkish authorities, and then crossed to the Greek shore in plastic boats.
The Minister of Citizen Protection, Takis Theodorikakos, denounced this Friday the behavior of Turkey in the Council of Ministers of the Interior and Public Order that took place in Luxembourg, where he also told the European Commissioner of the matter, his daily challenges.
Athens wants to almost completely block the border at Evros due to the increasing number of illegal border crossings from Turkey, so it has added 80 kilometers of border fencing along the river to the existing 35.
