Fortress Europe Border Updates
Update from Edirne: Day 1
Day 1 for our Team on the ground: Lorenz, Eva and Natalie reporting from Edirne/Karaağaç on 11.3.2020
We arrived in Edirne in the afternoon, passing by several police checkpoints on the highway coming from Istanbul. Police wouldn’t let us close to Karaağaç (the suburb right at the border). After trying at several entry points, we decided to walk through Edirne, listening for Arabic or Farsi speakers. At the bridge connecting Edirne with Karaağaç we met a Syrian family in a car on their way back to southern Turkey. They had been living in Turkey for some time and sold everything because they believed they could go to Europe. When we met them at the roadside, they were waiting for the mother with four kids, one of them with Trisomie 21 and in need of heart surgery, all in the camp at Parzakule (the main border crossing). While standing there at the roadside, talking, police came by to ask what we were doing there.
We walked around Edirne and met another group of Syrians who had spent a few years in Turkey already and decided to try for Europe now when they heard the news that the borders were open. After having been to the border directly for a week, they decided it was too dangerous for their kids and are now living in Edirne. They kept telling us: “We always thought Europe was about Human Rights and Humanity. Why not for us? Why are we being shot at? Why do they do that? All we want is to live in peace and safety.” They told us the Turkish people in the south, at the border with Idlib, are often hostile but here the local people are treating them nicely. However, the police does force them towards the border, making them swim through the river etc. to push them towards Greece.
When walking back to our car, we met one Algerian and one Moroccan guy. They were wearing completely torn clothes, one of them in sandals - it is March and the nights are freezing. They are living on the streets of Edirne. The Moroccan man told us he had made it to Greece already. He was caught by Greek police in Thessaloniki, was beaten heavily, forced to spend 15 days outside in the cold and was then pushed back to Turkey. He tried to cross again together with the Algerian man, swimming through Evros. They were caught and badly beaten with batons by Greek police. They had everything taken away from them, including their clothes, and then returned them to Turkey in their underwear - they are two of the guys of that famous picture of the group gathered around the fire. We supplied them with blankets and plastic sheets for shelter. They are scared to be caught by police and returned to Istanbul and will definitely try to cross again.
It is a confusing situation with mixed info. Apparently, refugees can leave the closed areas with permits, but they don’t always get them. Some people are saying that refugees can freely decide to leave the area altogether and go back to the other parts of Turkey, others say they can’t. We observed two instances where police took people from Edirne to the border against their will, but we also witnessed the Syrian family managing to go inside the closed Pazarkule area to get their kids and leave.
At night, we decided to try to get to Karaağaç one more time. Driving along the border to the south, we found a dirt road across the river and through fields. We followed it and passed one police checkpoint, but were able to just drive by, until we suddenly found ourselves inside Karaağaç.
We parked our car in a side road to get some sleep.
The situation at the border fence clearly escalated again today. Sounds of shots and the smell of tear gas was everywhere (in Karaagac as well as Edirne).
We heard rumors that two kids died so far from the tear gas. We heard rumours that Turkey is firing smoke gas to cloud the vision for the Greek side while trying to tear down the fence/pushing people across the border. We also heard stories of Greek military raping female refugees. We could not confirm any of that.
We arrived in Edirne in the afternoon, passing by several police checkpoints on the highway coming from Istanbul. Police wouldn’t let us close to Karaağaç (the suburb right at the border). After trying at several entry points, we decided to walk through Edirne, listening for Arabic or Farsi speakers. At the bridge connecting Edirne with Karaağaç we met a Syrian family in a car on their way back to southern Turkey. They had been living in Turkey for some time and sold everything because they believed they could go to Europe. When we met them at the roadside, they were waiting for the mother with four kids, one of them with Trisomie 21 and in need of heart surgery, all in the camp at Parzakule (the main border crossing). While standing there at the roadside, talking, police came by to ask what we were doing there.
We walked around Edirne and met another group of Syrians who had spent a few years in Turkey already and decided to try for Europe now when they heard the news that the borders were open. After having been to the border directly for a week, they decided it was too dangerous for their kids and are now living in Edirne. They kept telling us: “We always thought Europe was about Human Rights and Humanity. Why not for us? Why are we being shot at? Why do they do that? All we want is to live in peace and safety.” They told us the Turkish people in the south, at the border with Idlib, are often hostile but here the local people are treating them nicely. However, the police does force them towards the border, making them swim through the river etc. to push them towards Greece.
When walking back to our car, we met one Algerian and one Moroccan guy. They were wearing completely torn clothes, one of them in sandals - it is March and the nights are freezing. They are living on the streets of Edirne. The Moroccan man told us he had made it to Greece already. He was caught by Greek police in Thessaloniki, was beaten heavily, forced to spend 15 days outside in the cold and was then pushed back to Turkey. He tried to cross again together with the Algerian man, swimming through Evros. They were caught and badly beaten with batons by Greek police. They had everything taken away from them, including their clothes, and then returned them to Turkey in their underwear - they are two of the guys of that famous picture of the group gathered around the fire. We supplied them with blankets and plastic sheets for shelter. They are scared to be caught by police and returned to Istanbul and will definitely try to cross again.
It is a confusing situation with mixed info. Apparently, refugees can leave the closed areas with permits, but they don’t always get them. Some people are saying that refugees can freely decide to leave the area altogether and go back to the other parts of Turkey, others say they can’t. We observed two instances where police took people from Edirne to the border against their will, but we also witnessed the Syrian family managing to go inside the closed Pazarkule area to get their kids and leave.
At night, we decided to try to get to Karaağaç one more time. Driving along the border to the south, we found a dirt road across the river and through fields. We followed it and passed one police checkpoint, but were able to just drive by, until we suddenly found ourselves inside Karaağaç.
We parked our car in a side road to get some sleep.
The situation at the border fence clearly escalated again today. Sounds of shots and the smell of tear gas was everywhere (in Karaagac as well as Edirne).
We heard rumors that two kids died so far from the tear gas. We heard rumours that Turkey is firing smoke gas to cloud the vision for the Greek side while trying to tear down the fence/pushing people across the border. We also heard stories of Greek military raping female refugees. We could not confirm any of that.
