Numerous migrants have been concentrating in Turkey’s western seaside towns, "as if ready to cross into neighboring Greece’s islands," the newspaper said on Saturday, citing anonymous sources linked to the Greek authorities.
According to the sources, the Turkish police have been regulating the movement of migrants from remote inland areas to the Turkish shore, planning to push the coronavirus-infected migrants to cross into Greece and other parts of Europe.
According to data from the Coronavirus Resource Center of the Johns Hopkins University, Turkey has over 52,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the coronavirus death toll in the country stands at over 1,000. In Greece, more than 2,000 coronavirus cases have been registered, including over 90 deaths from COVID-19.
In March, Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told Sputnik that Turkey must stop using the threat of millions of migrants and asylum seekers entering the European Union to blackmail Brussels. The deputy foreign minister stated that Ankara itself had created the conditions that led to migrants assembling on Turkey’s border with Greece by failing to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees.