The Government in Turkey has prepared thousands of dinghies and motorboats along the coast, Greek analysts claim, to be used if the seemingly doomed refugee deal agreed between Ankara and Brussels officially fails.
Under the agreement finalised in March, Turkey was to be paid £4billion to care for migrant crossing from Syria.
Any migrants landing in Greece or Italy would be sent back to Turkey.
As a sweetener Brussels agreed Turkish citizens would be allowed to travel without a visa in the Schengen zone.
But the deal began to fail as Europe accused Turkey of failing to stop the migrant flow and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the money was not being paid.
Mr Erdogan threatened to open the borders if the EU continued to block talks on the country’s accession to the union.
After a failed military coup in July Europe angered Turkey by distancing itself from the country.
The European Parliament voted to temporarily halt membership talks when the ruling AK party announced a brutal crackdown on dissent and threatened to bring back the death penalty.
Mr Erdogan warned: "If you go any further, these border gates will be opened. Neither me nor my people will be affected by these dry threats. It wouldn't matter if all of you approved the vote".
But according to Greek newspaper Proto Thema, Ankara has given up on hope of Brussels living up to its side of the deal and could start allowing the refugees to flee “within a matter of weeks”.
Currently, there are around four million migrants in camps across the whole of Turkey, which shares a border with Syria.
Greek intelligence expert Athanassios Drougas told The Times: “No one is underestimating Mr Erdogan and his unpredictability these days.
“These plans, along with explicit threats that the Turkish president has made in recent weeks, have Greece’s joint chiefs of staff seriously concerned.
“They are fearful and they have told the political leadership here that if Turkey opens the floodgates yet again, Greece, in its current state of financial and social distress, will not be able to withstand the shock.
“It will spell war or wreak the havoc of one.
“With Europe in a mess, Mr Erdogan feels he has a free hand in trying to blackmail the bloc using the refugee crisis as leverage.
Greece has been battling the migrant crisis and trying to rescue desperate refugees from the sea on a daily basis for the whole of 2016 and much of 2015.
Currently more than 60,000 refugees are living in refugee camps in Greece after several Balkan countries sealed their borders.
Many remain stuck on islands in the Aegean with frequent fires and disorder breaking out in the large, unsanitary camps.
Over a million refugees, mostly from Syria and Iraq, arrived in Europe last year with many coming via the Aegean and Mediterranean seas or overland through Turkey.
Source: Express...
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