Turkey has warned that it may have reached the limit of its "capacity to absorb" more refugees. Turkey's deputy premier made the announcement Sunday after the country faced heightened pressure to accept new refugees who've been driven away from their homes due to a recent Russian-backed offensive.
"Turkey has reached the end of its capacity to absorb (refugees)," Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said. "But in the end, these people have nowhere else to go. Either they will die beneath the bombings and Turkey will ... watch the massacre like the rest of the world, or we will open our borders."
The Daily Mail reported Sunday that a record of over 35,000 Syrians have made their way to Turkish borders. Although Turkey couldn't promise to accommodate further refugees, they promised to provide aid to the people displaced by the Syrian conflict.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has headed to Turkey to have a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a last-ditch effort to slow down the exodus of refugees towards European Union members states.
What the growth of refugees in the Turkish border means for Merkel and other European leaders is the possibility of having these refugees transfer to Europe in case Turkey declines to give them asylum, as noted by the Financial Times.
"We have to protect [the EU's] external borders because we want to preserve Schengen," Merkel said. "If we can't protect our external borders, the freedom of movement in the internal market, which is part of the basis of our prosperity, will be under threat. And that must be avoided."
The Schengen refers to the European Union's passport-free zone.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed that Turkey is willing to accept refugees into the country "if necessary." The country currently houses at least 2.5 million Syrian refugees.
Dr. Osama Abo el-Ezz, a Syrian doctor, told The Independent that many families have taken refuge in rural areas to the west of the rebel-held city of Aleppo in Syria.
"They are hungry, they are sleeping on the ground," el-Ezz said about the conditions of the people displaced by the war. "They are waiting for some kind of help. Every day there are about 10 to 20 people killed in Aleppo city by the Russian planes and by bombing by the regime."
If the constant bombardment does not cease, Kurtulmus estimates that, when worse comes to worst, at least one million refugees would flee Aleppo and nearby towns. Consequently, this would pose a huge challenge to Turkey and Europe.
