I know it’s election night around the US, but I wanted to post this analysis from the New York Post on what’s going on in Europe. We told you last week that Erdogan had announced he would begin flooding Europe with Syrian refugees. It has begun and the NY Post Editorial Board fears it could mean the end of the EU:
Turkish tyrant Recep Tayyip Erdogan is only trying to blackmail the European Union with his latest let-loose-the-refugees ploy — but he could end up destroying it.
On Friday, Ankara announced it was opening its land and sea borders with Europe, thereby letting potentially millions of refugees and asylum-seekers from Syria and beyond head for the EU via Greece.
Erdogan is eager for Western help as his forces battle the Syrian army near Idlib — the last rebel-held stronghold. Turkey has gone on the offensive after an airstrike (likely Russian) killed 33 Turkish soldiers last Thursday. Turkey is winning that battle — but Russia might intervene to turn the tide.
Either way, the fighting has pushed more Syrian civilians toward Turkey, and Erdogan (whose nation already hosts 3.5 million refugees) opted to pass the problem on to the EU.
Greece is putting up a fight:
But Greece refuses to let them in: It has suspended all asylum applications for a month and vowed to deport all illegal entrants.
Already, thousands of migrants have clashed violently with Greek riot police wielding tear gas, batons, stun grenades and rubber bullets — and Athens says it will start using live ammo next. Other refugees are trying the sea route; a small child died when a dinghy full of migrants capsized Monday.
EU law forbids Greece’s actions, but Athens refuses to be overwhelmed — and the rest of Europe doesn’t want a return of the 2015 refugee crisis, either: It’s still feeling the aftershocks, including the rise of anti-immigration parties, as well as Brexit.
Italy is already struggling with the Coronavirus:
Indeed, a fresh wave of refugees could push Italy over the brink: Coronavirus has already shut down much of its most productive regions, and Rome isn’t that far from fiscal problems that could make the Greek debt crisis of 2007-8 look mild.
EU is already weak:
All this, when overall EU leadership is at its weakest in decades: Britain is gone, Germany’s Angela Merkel is on her way out with no clear successor and France’s Emmanuel Macron is deeply unpopular at home.
It doesn’t help that the EU never settled its own refugee policies after 2015: It just bribed Erdogan into enforcing its own borders — and now he’s demanding a bigger bribe.
It may be as simple as sending Erdogan the Patriot missiles he wants to fend off Russian planes, or it may require Europe to finally figure out how to settle some refugees without inviting another flood, but the EU can’t get out of this one via its usual answer — kicking the can down the road.
Erdogan began the EU’s destabilization in 2015 when he flooded the region with migrants. Germany rolled over and accepted millions of refugees without putting up a fight. As the NY Post points out, that led to the rise of anti-immigration parties in Europe which led to Brexit. Now Erdogan appears to be going for the knockout blow if he doesn’t get what he wants.
We’ve written on Erdogan quite a lot over the years, how he crushed his enemies in his own country to seize power. And now it appears he’s trying to crush his regional enemies too. Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman Empire dream is becoming a reality. The eighth kingdom of Revelation 17 is resurrecting. Buckle up.