Barricades, bullets won’t deter refugees trying to leave Turkey

The staccato bursts of gunshots in the distance reverberate through the community of migrants waiting at a Turkish border crossing with Greece.

Many of them have returned from the main border zone, which is about 30 minutes on foot, to a sort of holding stage packed with newly arrived refugees, police, journalists, aid workers, taxi drivers and entrepreneurs on the fly looking to make a quick buck.

They describe chaotic scenes, speak of eyes stinging from tear gas, display limbs injured after getting snagged in barbed wire, arms and legs swollen from beatings, and shootings by Greek security forces.

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Mesut Elmaz, 23, from Afghanistan recounts his version at the Pazarkule crossing in north-western Turkey. He says he witnessed refugees on the Turkish side throwing stones at Greek security forces.

“The Greek soldiers responded by shooting at them with live bullets. Six people were shot at,” he said, adding that two died and four were wounded.

The governor of Edirne, where Pazarkule is located, said one migrant was killed and five wounded in gunfire. Greece was quick to deny this as “fake news.”

Elmaz says the victims were shot in the chest. He and his friends tried to help the injured, but it was so crowded and chaotic that they couldn’t reach an ambulance immediately. This area is thought to be packed with thousands of refugees.

Through the day, ambulances were rushing to and from the border zone. Pazarkule was buzzing with activity and high tension, as more migrants arrived on foot, in taxis and on buses. Extra barricades were erected across a vast area of fields, to prevent refugees from inching closer to the main frontier, which is already packed beyond capacity.

Sayyid Rahman, an Afghan, has blood stains on his sweatshirt, shoes and hands. He said he lit a fire to keep warm when all of a sudden he heard and saw people shooting. The area was full of smoke.

He claimed Greek police fired the shots, with about 10 people shot in the neck and face. He said he took three injured people to ambulances which were very far away.

As more gunfire could be heard, several refugees coming out of the main border zone said these were being fired in the air from the Greek side as warning shots.

Muhammad Yusuf, 29, from al-Raqqa in Syria, was walking away from the commotion.

He has a limp and was using a stick fashioned from a twig. Like many others, he’s been at Pazarkule for three days, waiting to move to the border, and then across the no-man’s land to Greece.

Yusuf says he was injured when the Greek police fired tear gas at a group of refugees. Everyone started running and while he was trying to escape he got caught in the barbed wire.

Greek police beat him with a stick, he claimed. “Too much is going on there – gunshots, tear gas,” he said, adding that first they were shooting with blanks and then they used live bullets.

Mayaam, a 17-year-old Afghan, rolls up his trousers to show his injured leg. He managed to cross the border twice, but was sent back. He claims Greek forces took away his mobile phone, money and clothes. He was beaten with an iron bar, he says.

After going back to Istanbul, Mayaam says he’s back – with money and new clothes – and will try to cross over again.

Amidst the chaos of what really happened there, some enterprising Edirne store owners were doing brisk business – they had many mouths to feed, after all.

At least four mini-trucks and cars packed with blankets, water, Pepsi, bread, potatoes, tomatoes, oranges, apples, soda, biscuits, and chocolate milk were set up. Their customers: the refugees.

Edirne local Hassan Tunay, 32, who has several shops said he had come here because his business was not going well.

“I’m here to sell, and there’s a need for it,” he tells dpa.

But his time was limited as he had just received a warning that the police were on their way. He was packing up as a refugee approached him to buy a soft drink. Tunay told him in a panic that it’s “forbidden to sell,” and drove off.

Soon enough plain clothes officers walked by, and further away a scuffle broke out between some migrants as one of them had a crate full of mandarins and the others had nothing.

A Turkish law student from Istanbul drove by in an innocuous car – the trunk filled with water bottles. He loudly exclaimed: “Ten lira, ten lira,” instantly attracting an eagre crowd of migrants who will spend the night in open fields without food and shelter.

He told dpa that he wanted to make some extra money and took off as quickly as he appeared.

No one is sure what will happen after the shooting incident. “I have no hope that I can pass,” said Fadi, 43, from Hama in Syria, who is here with nine family members, including five children.

Fadi came to Pazarkule from Gaziantep, on Turkey’s southern border with Syria, after paying 7,000 Turkish lira (1,200 dollars).

“The whole world and all the news said the borders were open. I’d never have come here if I knew the borders were closed,” Fadi tells dpa. (dpa)