Border Tells a Different Story to Greece and Turkey’s Claims
- Most migrants at militarized border not from war-torn Syria
- Reality on the ground does not jibe with spin by either side
A migrant from Afghanistan huddles in a blanket after arriving by boat on the shoreline near the village of Skala Sikamineas, in Lesbos, Greece, on March. 1.
Photographer: Konstantinos Tsakalidis/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Istanbul’s working class neighborhood of Zeytinburnu was buzzing Sunday as migrants huddled in groups debating whether to travel to the border with Greece so they could achieve their dream: to live in Europe.
Following Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to open the frontier, excitement rippled through the district of about 300,000 people that’s home to young Afghans, Central Asians and Iranians, as the propaganda machines went into overdrive on both sides of the border.