ATHENS: Greece will reinforce its police patrols on its border with Turkey, an official said Wednesday amid expectations of renewed migration pressure.
An additional 400 police will be sent to the northeastern Evros river border region “as a precautionary measure,” police spokesman Thodoros Chronopoulos told AFP.
The border area was the scene of clashes in March after Turkey said it would no longer prevent asylum-seekers from reaching the European Union.
For days, there were skirmishes on the border as migrants, trying to break through, threw stones at Greek riot police who fired tear gas at them.
On Tuesday, Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos told Skai TV that Athens was aware of “certain statements that suggest we will face pressure on our borders again, especially our land borders.”
After the attempted asylum-seeker surge in March, Athens said it would extend a border fence, a move that has created a new dispute with Ankara.
Turkey says it should be consulted about the fence expansion, noting that the Evros riverbed “has significantly changed due to natural and artificial reasons” since the border was established in 1926.
Ankara says “technical coordination” is required, and that it would not allow any “fait accompli” on its border.
Greece counters that it is not obliged to consult Turkey about infrastructure on its own side of the border.
“We will proceed with the fence expansion. It is our constitutional obligation to protect Greek soil,” said Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.
Greece to bolster patrols on border with Turkey
https://arab.news/nr6jr
Greece to bolster patrols on border with Turkey
- The border area was the scene of clashes in March after Turkey said it would no longer prevent asylum-seekers from reaching the EU
- For days, there were skirmishes on the border as migrants, trying to break through, threw stones at Greek riot police
Trump says he’s dropping push for National Guard in Chicago, LA and Portland, Oregon, for now
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said he’s dropping — for now — his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a move that comes after legal roadblocks hung up the effort.
Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that he’s removing the Guard troops for now. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again — Only a question of time!” he wrote.
Troops had already left Los Angeles after the president deployed them earlier this year as part of a broader crackdown on crime and immigration. They had been sent to Chicago and Portland but were never on the streets as legal challenges played out.
Trump’s push to deploy the troops in Democrat-led cities has been met with legal challenges at nearly every turn.
The Supreme Court in December refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area as part of its crackdown on immigration. The order was not a final ruling but was a significant and rare setback by the high court for the president’s efforts.
In the nation’s capital, District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to halt the deployments of more than 2,000 guardsmen.
In Oregon, a federal judge permanently blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there.
California National Guard troops had already been removed from the streets of Los Angeles by Dec. 15 after a court ruling. But an appeals court had paused a separate part of the order that required control of the Guard to return to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In a Tuesday court filing, the Trump administration said it was no longer seeking a pause in that part of the order. That paves the way for the California National Guard troops to fully return to state control after Trump federalized the Guard in June.
