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Breakthrough on Syria refugee crisis unlikely as EU sends emissary to Ankara

European-Turkish contacts are intensifying in an effort to stave off a disastrous refugee crisis on Turkey's border with Greece that could have repercussions across Europe.
Migrants walk with boxes of food delivered by members of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at the Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing with Greece's Kastanies, in Edirne, Turkey, February 29, 2020. REUTERS/Huseyin Aldemir - RC2FAF9OGDW7

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was due to arrive in Ankara today, part of a diplomatic effort to defuse a crisis brewing on the Turkish-Greek border that could result in a repeat of the mass influx of migrants in 2015 that triggered a sharp populist backlash across Europe.

A senior Western official who briefed Al-Monitor on the EU’s deliberations said, “There’s an intense effort by the EU Commission and the EU Presidential Council to see what can be done and put something together by the end of the week that would basically stabilize the Turkish-European relationship without resolving the struggles in Syria that actually I don’t see how Europe could do.”

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