Turks slam Greeks over fake ‘push-forward’ story

Turkey has slammed Greece’s migration minister over a video tweet allegedly showing members of the Turkish coast guard beating refugees during an alleged push-forward, with Ankara rushing to provide context and accusing Greek media of failing to properly retract a fabricated story.

Turkish Deputy Interior Minister Ismail Catakli has accused Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi of “digging up the dumpster” in connection with a viral video that appeared to show Turkish coast guard officers hitting migrants and pushing a refugee boat away from the law enforcement vessel.

Mitarachi had tweeted the video last Wednesday suggesting it was recent footage “filmed by a refugee who was saved by Greece” and adding that it was “further proof of the instrumentalization of migration flows by Turkey.”

“Footage [of] Turkish coastguard violently pushing forward migrants to Greece, in violation of international law and the EU joint statement,” the Greek minister wrote days before he traveled to Cyprus to attend a MED5 Summit.

But Ankara says the real story is exactly the opposite, slamming slammed Mitarachi for sharing an old video from three years ago and accusing Greek media of failing to properly retract the story.

According to Catakli, who provided a link to a Turkish press release with video from September 2019, the incident took place three years ago near Madra Stream, off the Turkish coast, involving a refugee boat trying to outmaneuver authorities.

Turkish authorities at the time claimed that the migrant boat captain carried out dangerous maneuvers to avoid being taken back to the coast. “He resisted to all preventive and approaching maneuvers and kept doing maneuvers which put the lives of irregular migrants in danger,” a statement said in 2019.

“During the interception maneuvers, one irregular migrant on the migrant boat attempted to puncture the rubber tubes of Coast Guard Control Boat with his knife. As he could not succeed doing this, he threw his knife into sea. Again, one other migrant injured himself by cutting some part of his body with razor and he threatened CG staff that he would throw the babies on the boat into the water. He prevented the migrants on board who wished to get ropes from CG staff. He also tried to batter some migrants who wanted to stop him,” it was reported.

Kathimerini Greece on October 5 published Mitarachi’s tweet with the video in question but no dates or location were provided, while the story appeared to have been updated over the weekend.

“It turned out that the video, showing the migrant boat next to the Turkish vessel and migrants pleading with the coast guard officers to help them, who instead shout at them and use sticks to push them away – was an old one, from 2019,” Kathimerini said in the updated text.

Turkish officials also point finger at Greek media

But Turkish Embassy officials in Athens criticized Greek media outlets for “failing to retract fabricated reports” and further accused their colleagues of being “quick to disseminate a purported ‘visual proof of Turkish push-forward of irregular migrants' this past week.”

Numerous reports and posts on Greek news sites last week had shared the story and video from Mitarachi’s tweet.

"We would have expected similarly swift and honest retractions when it turned out that the video 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 stated.

Incident highlighted as EU ministers debate migration pact this week

The story was also overshadowed by migration and asylum ministers during a MED5 Summit held in the Cypriot town of Paphos over the weekend ahead of a crucial Council of Ministers in Luxemburg this week on migration.

During the summit in Paphos, Mitarachi alluded to MED5 proclamations about an EU migration pact still pending approval.

“In any way, Greece remains committed to protecting its borders in accordance with international law,” said Mitarachi, as he thanked Cypriot Interior Minister Nikos Nouris for hosting the summit and “the opportunity to chart a common path.”

Nouris is expected this week to call on Brussels to seek legal ways that would allow asylum seekers to file applications with EU member states without stepping soil in those countries.

Currently it is legal for foreign nationals seeking asylum in the Republic of Cyprus to enter the southern part of Cyprus through checkpoints from the north of the divided island.

But the process has been halted by the interior ministry, often prompting irregular migrants and refugees to seek illegal ways to cross the divide for a better and safer future in Europe.

Nicosia is seeking ways to challenge a number of provisions in a proposed EU comprehensive immigration package, citing huge influx of what Nouris has described as “illegal economic migrants.”

Last year Cyprus teamed up with other Mediterranean countries known as MED5 to warn Brussels against two proposals, screening regulations and fingerprint changes, arguing the schemes within the pact would place undue burden on front line member states.