Sovereign Borders Are Back - Except for Erdogan's

By Olivia Pierson
First published on Insight@theBFD 19/03/2020 

In what can only be described as a badly-timed asymmetrical war tactic, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been facilitating tens of thousands of Middle Eastern and African migrants to storm the borders with Greece and Bulgaria in an attempt to flood Europe with more third-world refugees.
 
Erdogan claims to be taking this action in retaliation for the 33 Turkish soldiers killed in Syria’s Idlib province in a Russian-backed Syrian airstrike in late February. The fighting in Idlib precipitated nearly another million Syrian refugees to move toward Turkey’s southern border for protection.

As his country already hosts 3.5 million refugees from Syria’s war, Erdogan has been threatening to open his borders for migrants to cross into Europe for a long time. It’s his number one blackmail card. In February of 2016, Erdogan reminded Jean-Claude Juncker, former President of the European Commission, “We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria any time… we can put the refugees on buses.’ 

After years of threats, Erdogan has now done just that. 

While the whole world obsesses 24/7 over the huge distraction of the Wuhan virus, Erdogan’s actions have become more extreme as he seeks to draw European powers into the war.

Greece has committed to defend its borders vigorously and aggressively.  Its economy is still struggling and the migrant crisis which started in 2015 has caused chaos inside the small country, as it has in every Western European country, but Greece still has many friends. Poland and Austria assisted by sending their own special forces to the Greek/Turkish border. The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary are also supporting Greece and Bulgaria, as are the leaders of Serbia and Croatia. The whole of the European Union stand in solidarity with Greece against Turkish aggression.
 
The fact that Greece and Turkey are both members of NATO complicates matters even further.
 
Turkey entered into an agreement with the EU in 2016. They pledged to shelter the millions of Syrian refugees in return for 6-billion euros of aid. But Turkey, now a major player in the war in Syria, wants a protected area in Idlib province to push Syrian refugees back into their homeland.  He has demanded that the international community – especially Europe – help him to do this by enforcing no-fly zones and financially aiding the refugees to make a new home within Syria’s borders. But Russia, Syria and Iran have a clear advantage in the conflict and no land has been ceded to Turkey by the Assad regime, and won’t be.

After so many of his own soldiers were killed in the February airstrike, Erdogan broke his agreement with the EU and provided transport for the mass exodus of Syrians, Afghans, Moroccans, Pakistanis, Iranians and Iraqis to begin their flow toward the Greek and Bulgarian borders, where chaos has ensued since. He has shamelessly used them as pawns in his attempt to blackmail Europe.

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has declared his borders to be sovereign and closed to any interlopers, declaring they will all be turned back or imprisoned – and that is exactly what Greece is doing now with the moral support of the EU.  
What a turn around. 

After decades of Western civilisation being subjected to the sermonising of globalist elites as they preach their weird morality of open borders like knaves, and after witnessing President Trump receive almost world-wide condemnation for wanting America’s borders to be tightly controlled, one can only make the observation that the force majeure of the Wuhan virus has shown us just why the sovereign borders of nations ought to be safeguarded.
 
Now nationalism, properly understood, is well and truly back as the governments of each nation suddenly prioritise the safety first of their own citizens and I don’t hear anyone making arguments to the contrary anymore – except Erdogan, but his timing happens to be spectacularly off.

If you enjoyed this article, please buy my book "Western Values Defended: A Primer"