(Bloomberg) -- The Turkish government is deploying hundreds of special police forces at the Greek border to prevent Athens from “pushing back refugees” who are trying to cross into Greece, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.
“We're bringing 1,000 special forces police officers to the Maritza River,” known as Evros in Greek, Soylu told reporters after touring the border area with a helicopter on Thursday. He said three refugees have been killed so far by fire from the Greek side while 164 people have been hospitalized, an accusation the Greek government has denied.
Turkey announced last week that it would no longer stand in the way if refugees and migrants it hosts seek to cross the border with Europe. Athens has responded to the sudden influx by mobilizing extra police and army forces to disperse crowds gathered at the Kastanies border crossing in northern Greece.
“They've tried to push back 4,900 refugees back to Turkey,” Soylu said.
Greece invoked an emergency clause of European treaties on Sunday, refusing to accept asylum applications for a month. It has repelled 34,788 illegal border crossings over the past five days, according to government officials.
Soylu said more than 139,000 refugees have crossed Turkey's 200-kilometer (125 miles) land border with Greece. When one reporter asked for a verification of the figure, Soylu accused him of being a “toy” of Greek media.
READ: Border Tells a Different Story to Greece and Turkey's Claims
To contact the reporter on this story: Taylan Bilgic in Istanbul at tbilgic2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Constantine Courcoulas, Amy Teibel
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