Dursun Ali Şahin

Thousands of migrants have set off on foot to the border with Greece after spending the past three days in makeshift camps in the fileds near the Turkish city of Edirne, Bulgaria's bTV station reported on Friday.

Police and gendarmerie forces later halted their advance. The migrants are now closer to Pazarkuke border crossing with Greece.

Hundreds of refugees hoping to cross the Turkish border into Greece or Bulgaria would have to return to refugee camps in southern Turkey, the governor of Turkey's Edirne province has said.

"They have to leave here tomorrow and the day after tomorrow,"  Anadolu Agency quoted Governor Dursun Ali Sahin as saying on Thursday.

Erdine province is bordering both Greece and Bulgaria.

Ottoman-era Edirne mosque in northwestern Turkey is being lit up. Fitted with extra lighting, the Selimiye Mosque will be so bright that people will be able to see it from Greece and Bulgarian towns that are 20km away.

U.S. consular-general to Istanbul Charles F. Hunter has praised the restorations of a synagogue in neighboring Edirne province, after meeting the governor who hit headlines after suggesting that the structure should be turned into a museum in reaction to Israeli policies on the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.