Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is warning to “open the ports” to enable Syrian refugees to depart Turkey for western countries unless a “safe zone” is established in Syria soon. 

“ We will be forced to open the gates. We cannot be forced to handle the burden alone,” stated Erdogan.“Our goal is to settle at least a million of our Syrian brothers and sisters in a safe zone along the border 450 kilometres long,” Erdogan added in his speech.

Erdoğan issued the harsh warning as the country is hosting more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees. Erdogan demanded the European Union to fulfil its pledge to provide a financial assistance in line with an agreement for migrant returns reached in 2016.

“Either you will provide support, or, excuse us, but we are not going to carry this weight alone,” he stated, continuing that if it does not get support, “we will be forced to open the gates.”