Edirne

When Sawsan al-Musawa heard last week that President Tayyip Erdogan had opened Turkey's borders for migrants to cross into Europe,the Syrian mother of four left a refugee camp in eastern Turkey and headed west to the Greek border.

Turkey is deploying 1,000 special police forces along its border with Greece on Thursday to halt the pushback of migrants toward its territory, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said, adding that 164 migrants had been wounded by Greek authorities.

Turkish officials said Greek forces had killed a migrant and wounded five others on March 4 as they tried to cross the border between the two countries.

Greece's foreign ministry says Turkey engages in a disinformation campaign concerning the number of migrants who have entrered Greek territory from Turkey.

The response came hours after a tweet by Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu tweeted that "As of 09.55 hours [8:55 a.m. Greece time], the number of immigrants leaving our country via Edirne is 76 thousand 358."

The number of migrants leaving Turkey via its northwestern border province of Edirne reached 76,358, the country's interior minister said on March 1.  

Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu claims, in a Twitter post, that 76,358 migrants had passed through the border city of Edirne by Sunday morning on their way to the border crossing with Greece.

"As of 09.55 hours, the number of immigrants leaving our country via Edirne is 76 thousand 358," said Soylu, according to the Demiroren News Agency.

Turkey ramped up measures at its border gates yesterday as the coronavirus outbreak reached its western and northern neighbors amid an increase in the number of cases and deaths in its eastern neighbor Iran.

A total of 2,161 irregular migrants were held across Turkey over the past week, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency from security sources.

As many as 1,320 migrants were held in multiple operations carried out by gendarmerie forces in the northwestern Edirne, Kırklareli and Tekirdağ provinces, bordering Greece and Bulgaria.

Turkish forces held 1,773 irregular migrants across the country in the past week, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.

Turkey has been the main route for irregular migrants trying to cross to Europe especially since 2011 when the Syrian civil war started.

A total of 135 irregular migrants were held in Turkey's largest metropolis Istanbul, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Feb. 12.

This came as police conducted an operation as part of security efforts against irregular migration and human smuggling, Anadolu Agency cited anonymous sources as saying.