This content was published on 11 November 2021 – 08:45
Ankara, Nov 11 (EFE) .- Turkey has rejected as “unfounded” Poland’s accusations that it was facilitating the arrival of migrants from Istanbul to Minsk and thereby contributing to the crisis on the border between Poland and Belarus.
According to the Anadolu news agency, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau on Wednesday afternoon to express his displeasure at the accusations against Turkey and the majority state airline Turkish Airlines.
The call from the head of Turkish diplomacy came after Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki claimed that Turkey maintained an open corridor between Istanbul and Minsk and, with them, was helping Belarus push thousands of refugees to Poland.
Cavusoglu also invited a Polish technical team to Turkey so that it could verify the falseness of the accusations and inform “the public opinion correctly”.
Turkish Airlines also denied in a statement that it was facilitating illegal immigration and stressed that it complies with all legal and security measures in its operations around the world.
The European Union (EU) is studying new sanctions against Belarus, including third-country airlines that “actively participate in human trafficking.”
Hundreds of immigrants and refugees, mainly from Middle Eastern countries, find themselves on the border between Belarus and Poland in freezing temperatures.
Poland and the European Union accuse the Minsk regime of facilitating the arrival of these people by not requiring visas to exert pressure against the community bloc, which imposed sanctions on it due to the repression of the Belarusian opposition.
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