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The Grand Turk
Turkey denies report border guards shot at fleeing Syrians
2018-02-04
[REUTERS] Ottoman Turkish guards at the border with Syria are indiscriminately shooting at and summarily returning asylum seekers attempting to cross into The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire....
, Human Rights Watch said.

A senior Ottoman Turkish government official denied the report on Saturday, repeating that Turkey had taken in 3.5 million war refugees since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Syrians were now fleeing heightened violence in the northwestern province of Idlib to seek refuge near Turkey’s border, which remains closed to all but critical medical cases.

Syrian armed forces have thrust deeper into the mainly rebel-held province in recent months and Turkey last month launched military action in the nearby Afrin region, targeting Kurdish YPG militia fighters.

"Syrians fleeing to the Ottoman Turkish border seeking safety and asylum are being forced back with bullets and abuse," Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s front man Ibrahim Kalin, asked about the HRW statement, told news hounds that Ottoman Turkish soldiers were there to protect these people and that Ankara has had an "open-door policy" since the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011.

A senior government official later told Rooters:

"There has been absolutely no case of civilians being fired upon at the border."

Posted by:Fred

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