EU urges Turkey to open borders as thousands flee Aleppo assault

The European Union has urged Turkey to open its borders to thousands of Syrians fleeing an onslaught by government forces and intense Russian airstrikes on rebel-held areas around the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Turkey kept its Oncupinar border crossing closed on Saturday despite a significant increase in the number of arrivals to the European gateway in the past 48 hours. As many as 70,000 people are expected to head for the border in the coming days, said Suleyman Tapsiz, governor of Turkey’s Kilis border province.

The assault around Aleppo, which aid workers have said could soon fall to government forces, prompted tens of thousands to flee to the Turkish border to seek refuge. Any hopes of a ceasefire were dampened by Assad's foreign minister, who said it would be all but impossible to stop the fighting while rebels were able to pass freely across the borders with Turkey and Jordan.

Advances by the Syrian army and allied militias, including Iranian fighters, are threatening to cut off rebel-held zones of Aleppo, still home to around 350,000 people, while more than a million live in government-controlled areas.

The local governor on the Turkish side of the border, Suleyman Tapsiz, said around 35,000 Syrians had reached Oncupinar in the space of 48 hours.

Fifteen Syrians injured in bombings near Aleppo were allowed into Turkey through the crossing late on Friday night, but the Turkish government had not directly responded to the EU’s comments on Saturday evening. “Our doors are not closed, but at the moment there is no need to host such people inside our borders,” Tapsiz said.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, foreign minister of Turkey, said the border was open, but at the Oncupinar crossing near the Turkish city of Kilis, which has been largely shut for nearly a year, refugees were being shepherded into camps on the Syrian side.

"Our doors are not closed, but at the moment there is no need to host such people inside our borders," he said.

Although the Oncupinar crossing remained closed, the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said after a meeting with EU foreign ministers in Amsterdam that his country would maintain its open border policy.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the support being provided by the union to Turkey was aimed at guaranteeing that Ankara could protect and host all Syrians fleeing the war-torn country. On Thursday, the EU approved €3bn to help Turkey cope with the number of people.

EU foreign ministers have discussed with their counterparts from Balkan states possible ways of stemming the flow of people through the region. More than one million refugees, mostly Syrian, have arrived in the EU in the past 12 months. Most have crossed into Greece from Turkey before making their way through the Balkans to Germany and other countries such as Sweden.

Earlier this week, the EU said Greece had to re-establish full control over its border with Turkey to preserve the Schengen zone. If Greece failed to do so, Brussels could allow other member states to extend border controls for up to two years – an option officials say they want to avoid at all costs.

An estimated 850,000 people arrived in Greece last year, overwhelming its coast guard and reception facilities. Aid groups say the country is able to provide shelter for just 10,000 people – just over 1% of the total.