Turkey is expecting 60,000 refugees to arrive from the besieged Syrian province of Aleppo, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday after criticism that his country was refusing to let people in.
The refugees are fleeing Syria as government forces mount a major attack on rebel-held areas of the northern province, backed by Russian airstrikes.
“We still keep this open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression of the regime, as well as airstrikes of Russia,” Cavusoglu said in Amsterdam, after talks with his EU and Western Balkan counterparts on the refugee crisis. “We have received already more than 5,000 of them.”
But people in Kilis, southern Turkey, said the Bab al-Salameh border crossing, nearest to the affected areas, remained closed on Saturday.
Turkish news agency Anadolu reported that 2,000 ethnic Turkmen entered Saturday, but from the Jabal al-Turkoman area further to the southwest.
