EU Quarrels Over Refugees, With Greece, Austria in Crossfire

 James G Neuger

 John Follain

Bloomberg

European leaders quarreled again over the refugee influx, with fingers pointed at Greece for doing too little to seal its border and at Austria and Slovenia for doing too much.
Conflicting national responses to the expected 1 million new arrivals in 2016 on top of a similar number last year left Germany with the heaviest burden and Chancellor Angela Merkel facing untold political costs.
“We must first avoid a battle among plans A, B and C: It makes no sense at all because it creates divisions within the European Union,” EU President Donald Tusk told reporters after meetings ended in pre-dawn hours on Friday.

Kurds Warn Turkey of ‘Big War’ With Russia If Troops Enter Syria

 Henry Meyer
Stepan Kravchenko

Bloomberg

February 18, 2016 — 2:51 PM EET Updated on February 18, 2016 — 5:18 PM EET


Russia has promised to protect Kurdish fighters in Syria in case of a ground offensive by Turkey, a move that would lead to a “big war,” the Syrian group’s envoy to Moscow said in an interview on Wednesday.
“We take this threat very seriously because the ruling party in Turkey is a party of war,” Rodi Osman, head of the Syrian Kurds’ newly-opened representative office said in Kurdish via a Russian interpreter. “Russia will respond if there is an invasion. This isn’t only about the Kurds, they will defend the territorial sovereignty of Syria.”

Hundreds of armed rebels cross from Turkey into Syria, says monitor

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports 500 insurgents and Islamist fighters headed for town of Azaz where anti-Assad forces have lost ground

The Guardian

At least 500 rebels on Wednesday crossed the Turkish border, a monitor said, and headed for the Syrian town of Azaz in northern Aleppo province where opposition forces have suffered setbacks at the hands of Kurdish fighters.

“At least 500 rebels have crossed the Bab al-Salam border crossing on their way to the town of Azaz, from which they want to help the insurgents in the face of gains made by Kurdish forces in the north of the province,” the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel, told Agence France-Presse.

Ankara blast: Turkey vows retaliation for deadly bomb attack

18-2-2016

49 minutes ago

BBC

Turkey has vowed to retaliate against the perpetrators of a powerful blast in the capital Ankara that left at least 28 people dead and 61 injured.

"Turkey will not shy away from using its right to self-defence at any time, any place or any occasion," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Officials said a vehicle full of explosives was detonated as military buses were passing by on Wednesday.

China 'has deployed missiles in South China Sea' - Taiwan

3 hours ago

BBC

China has deployed surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island in the South China Sea, Taiwan says.

Satellite images taken on 14 February appear to show two batteries of eight missile launchers and a radar system on Woody or Yongxing Island in the Paracels.

The presence of missiles would significantly increase tensions in the acrimonious South China Sea dispute.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said reports were a Western media invention.

But Mr Wang defended "the limited and necessary self-defence facilities" on islands inhabited by Chinese personnel as "consistent with the right for self-preservation and self-protection.... under the international law".

Migrant crisis: Greece ready to house more on islands

9 hours ago

 From the section Europe

BBC

Greece is starting to register migrants at four new reception centres on islands near Turkey, in line with a demand from the EU.

Five were supposed to have been completed by the end of last year. The fifth - on Kos - is not yet ready.

Merkel unmoved by refugee crisis criticism

Deutsche Welle

Germany will stick to its multifaceted response to Europe's refugee crisis, including aid delivered via Turkey, Chancellor Angela Merkel has told parliament. She's also backed the idea of a no-fly zone in northern Syria.

Merkel, in an address to Germany's Bundestag on the eve of a two-day Brussels summit, said Europe should work to improve the lives of refugees in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan as the way to meet "our goal" of reducing migrant flows into Europe.

She described as "intolerable" the situation for besieged civilians in and around northern Syria's war-torn hub of Aleppo, saying "nothing should be left undone" in trying to establish a no-fly zone to save "many human lives."

NATO and Europe’s Refugee Crisis

By THE EDITORIAL BOARDFEB. 16, 2016

The New York Times

The announcement last Thursday that NATO would send ships to patrol the Aegean in an effort to break up the smuggling rings ferrying desperate refugees and migrants from Turkey to Greece is, at this point, more a symbolic show of solidarity than anything else. Even so, it reflects a heightened sense of urgency about the refugee crisis and sends a strong signal that the Western alliance stands ready to help Europe cope with it.

Migration crisis: Plan for reinforced border north of Greece

15/02 23:52 CET   | updated 02:10 mn ago  

Euronews

Members of the so-called Visegrad group which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, are calling for a reinforced border north of Greece to help stop the flood of migrants into Europe.

Leaders from Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are proposing to create a second fence along FYROM’s and Bulgaria’s borders with Greece. (Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia FYROM).

Britons held in Greece over large guns stash

14 February 2016

BBC

Three men have been arrested in north-eastern Greece on suspicion of trying to smuggle weapons and ammunition into Turkey, Greek police say.

Two are British citizens - the third a UK resident. At least one of them is reported to be of Iraqi Kurdish origin.

The men were in possession of 22 firearms and more than 200,000 rounds of ammunition, police say.

They are suspected of being part of a "criminal gang". They are due to be charged on Tuesday.

They have reportedly asked to speak in court in Kurdish.

The UK Foreign Office says it is "urgently looking into the reports".

Visegrad Group opposes Germany's refugee policy

Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - known as the Visegrad Group - are set to discuss border protection and the refugee crisis. They might help Macedonia close its Greek border to migrants.

Deutsche Welle

The four Eastern European countries known for their restrictive asylum policy are set to call for the closure of the so-called Balkan route to migrants traveling to Western Europe, German weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported.

The Visegrad countries - Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - invited representatives of Bulgaria and Macedonia to their summit in Prague on Monday. Leaders of the Visegrad states are expected to agree on helping Macedonia to block the migrants' path at its border with Greece, according to diplomats quoted by Der Spiegel.

"As long as a coherent European strategy is lacking, it is legitimate for the countries along the Balkan route to protect their borders," Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak told the German magazine. "We will help them with that."

Επιστολή του καθηγητή Ιωάννη Π. Ιωαννιδη (έδρα C. F. Rehnborg του πανεπιστημίου Stanford) προς τον κ. Κυριάκο Μητσοτάκη

O Ιωάννης Π.Α. Ιωαννίδης κατέχει την έδρα C.F. Rehnborg πρόληψης νοσημάτων στο πανεπιστήμιο Stanford όπου είναι τακτικός καθηγητής παθολογίας, έρευνας και πολιτικής υγείας και στατιστικής. Έχει διατελέσει επίσης καθηγητής στα πανεπιστήμια Harvard, Tufts, Imperial College και Ιωαννίνων και είναι τακτiκό μέλος της European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Έχει τιμηθεί με επίτιμους τίλους και ανώτατες διακρίσεις από πολλά πανεπιστήμια και ερευνητικούς οργανισμούς. Τα δύο τελευταία βιβλία του (Τοκάτα για την κόρη με το καμένο πρόσωπο [Κέδρος 2012], Παραλλαγές πάνω στην τέχνη της φυγής και ένα απονενοημένο ριτσερκάρ [Κέδρος 2014]) βρεθηκαν στις βραχείες λίστες του Αναγνώστη για τα καλύτερα βραβεία της χρονιάς. Όπως αναφέρει στην ιστοσελίδα του χαίρεται να διδάσκεται από νέους ανθρώπους όλων των ηλικιών και να του θυμίζουν ότι δεν ξέρει σχεδόν τίποτα.

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Πρόσφυγες ή εισβολή;

Του Α Ανδριανόπουλου

Ισλαμ σε μια χωρα επιδρα στις εξελιξεις ευθεως αναλογα με τους αριθμους των μουσουλμανων που βρισκονται εκει. Αν οι αφοσιωμενοι οπαδοι του Μωαμεθ δεν ξεπερνουν το 1% του πληθυσμου τοτε οι μουσουλμανοι ειναι φιλησυχοι, αγαπουν την ειρηνη και δειχνουν ετοιμοι να ασχοληθουν αποκλειστικα με την καθημερινοτητα τους. Αυτο ισχυει απολυτα σε χωρες οπως οι Ηνωμενες Πολιτειες η Αυστραλία η ο Καναδάς με ποσοστο μουσουλμανων απο 0,08 έως 1,8% .

NATO Sends Warships to Aegean Sea to Stymie Smuggling, Help With Refugee Crisis

by ALEXANDER SMITH

CNBC

NATO is deploying three warships to the Aegean Sea to help stem Europe's spiraling migrant crisis, the alliance's chief said Thursday.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general, said the three ships currently under German command had been ordered to move to the area "without delay" to stymie deadly smuggling works.

The vessels — from Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 — will be deployed to a section of the Mediterranean called the Aegean Sea, a body of water separating Greece and Turkey that serves as one of the main arteries for refugees and migrants trying to enter Europe.

EU executive to push Greece, Italy more on migration

Tue Feb 9, 2016 2:47pm EST

BRUSSELS | BY GABRIELA BACZYNSKA

The EU executive will push Greece and Italy on Wednesday to do more to control migrants arriving across the Mediterranean, as time runs out for Athens to fix frontier chaos or be suspended from Europe's free travel zone.

EU leaders will meet next week under growing pressure to get the migration crisis under control before warmer spring weather encourages a surge of new arrivals.

More than a million people reached Europe last year, putting pressure on security and social systems in some EU states and exposing deep rifts within the 28-nation bloc.

Greece expects bailout review to resume next week: minister

Mon Feb 8, 2016 3:43pm GMT

ATHENS | BY RENEE MALTEZOU AND ANGELIKI KOUTANTOU

Reuters

Greece's lenders still need to be persuaded that Athens can plug a bigger than expected fiscal gap when talks on reforms needed under an international bailout resume next week, the finance minister said on Monday.

Talks between the heads of the EU/IMF mission reviewing Greece's progress and the government over a tough pension reform plan, fiscal targets and the handling of bad loans, took a break on Friday after four days of meetings.

Why ring-fencing Greece from Europe won’t solve anything

By Tania Karas February 9, 2016

Reuters

IDOMENI, Greece — The European Union’s weakest link could become an open-air refugee camp if some European leaders get their way. Amid concerns that Greece is failing to protect Europe’s external frontier, calls have grown louder to quarantine it by helping Macedonia seal its southern border — which refugees must cross to continue their journeys north — and suspend Greece from the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone.

Such proposals would effectively ring-fence Greece from the rest of the EU, trapping tens of thousands of asylum-seekers in a politically and economically fragile country with neither the infrastructure nor funds to care for them. Most migrants know this. Hence, Greece has never been their destination. It is merely a conduit to more affluent nations deeper into the continent.

Protests Grow Against Greek Plans to Build Migrant Camps

Residents on the Aegean island of Kos block a Greek army camp

The Wall Street Journal

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI

Updated Feb. 8, 2016 9:48 p.m. ET

17 COMMENTS

ATHENS—Protests against Greek government plans to build camps for refugees and other migrants escalated on Monday, further testing Greece’s ability to meet European Union demands to control the massive inflow of people via the Aegean Sea.

Residents on the Aegean island of Kos, where locals and riot police have been clashing daily since Friday, blockaded an army camp where the government wants to build a migrant registration and screening center, preventing construction work.

THIS is what could push Greece out of the euro

Holly Ellyatt   | @HollyEllyatt

22 Hours Ago

The pressure of thousands of migrants is piling on the pressure on a Greece struggling with a stagnant economy, rising social tensions and political pressure and could push the country back towards an exit from the euro zone, analysts Eurasia Group have warned.

Europe has been left reeling from the influx of migrants heading to the region, most of whom are fleeing civil war in Syria in the Middle East. However, Greece is struggling more than others as it and Turkey have become the first port of call for the migrants.

Cheap Cigarettes Are Burning Greece's Finances

By Nikos Chrysoloras

February 8, 2016 — 2:01 AM EET

On an unremarkable morning on Stournari street in downtown Athens, just a few blocks away from the epicenter of every riot the city has seen during its recent crisis years, two men of Asian origin politely and openly hawk cigarettes to passersby.

The illegal packs of R.G.D.-branded smokes cost 1.50 euros ($1.70) each, less than half the price of 20 Marlboros or Prince at one of Greece’s ubiquitous street kiosks.

As Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras walks another tightrope between creditor demands for additional belt tightening and a social backlash, the scene exposes an unhealthy truth: Greeks could smoke, drink and gamble their way out of their next financial hole, if only they were taxed on all of it.