Turkey’s track record of weaponising refugees

Since the onset of the Syrian refugee crisis, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has avoided developing a long-term strategy to help or integrate these refugees in Turkey. Instead, he has used them as bargaining chips with the European Union. In his latest attempt to weaponize these refugees, Erdogan is no longer halting their attempts to reach Europe. But his recent stunt of pushing refugees to the Greek-Turkish border demonstrates his lack of concern for their well-being, and that Ankara under his leadership is not a responsible partner in solving the refugee crisis.

On February 28, Erdogan proclaimed Turkey's border with Europe "open" and his country's authorities were told not to hinder any refugees from attempting to cross into the EU. Within 48 hours, nearly 13,000 refugees had arrived at the Greek-Turkish border while hundreds more landed on Greece's neighboring...