Turkey hopes opening frontier for migrants won’t hurt ties with West – official

Ankara does not believe its decision to allow some of the millions of migrants it hosts to cross into Europe will have an impact on its ties with the West, Turkey’s communications director said on Friday.

In response to the escalating conflict and the killing of 33 of its troops on Thursday in Syria’s Idlib region, Ankara threw open its western land and sea borders to outgoing migrants.

Fahrettin Altun said that migrants were now Europe’s and the world’s problem too, Reuters reported.

The official also told reporters that Ankara had “no choice” but to ease border controls after not receiving enough support in hosting some 3.7 million Syrian refugees.