Turkish Embassy rebukes Greek media for false reports on migrant crossings

By Burak Bir

ANKARA (AA) – The Turkish Embassy in Athens on Saturday issued a scathing rebuke over Greek media outlets’ false reporting against Türkiye.

It called out Greek news organizations for failing to retract fabricated reports based on a video that they claimed showed Turkish authorities pushing irregular migrants toward Greece.

The video in question was from 2019 and actually showed Turkish teams trying to stop migrants from heading to Greece, the embassy clarified in a series of tweets.

“Several Greek news outlets were quick to disseminate a purported ‘visual proof of Turkish push-forward of irregular migrants’ this past week,” the embassy said.

“We would have expected similarly swift and honest retractions when it turned out that the video (which was itself from 2019) actually shows strenuous efforts by the Turkish Coast Guard doing just the opposite - i.e. trying to intercept a migrant boat from making the crossing to the Greek side.”

The embassy also attached a Turkish Coast Guard statement on the incident released on Sept. 9, 2019.

“We hope to thus fill the information gap,” the embassy added.

Greece has long pursued an illegally policy of pushing back asylum seekers trying to reach its shores as an entry point to Europe.

Human rights groups and leading media outlets have frequently reported illegal pushbacks and other human rights breaches of Greek authorities that violate EU and international law.

Türkiye and rights groups have repeatedly condemned the illegal practice, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children.