By Theodore Shoebat

A Greek official, Dimitris Petrovic, the vice-mayor of Evros, which borders with Turkey, recently announced that there is information that Turkey is building a refugee camp on the border with Greece which will be able to hold up to 10,000 migrants. According to Ta Nea:

Turkey’s tactics for the refugee crisis in Evros have taken on new dimensions, as neighboring authorities reportedly set up camps in the Evros area.

As episodes in Evros continue and Greek forces are on alert , according to Evros Vice-Mayor Dimitris Petrovic, there is information that the Turkish authorities are setting up a camp in Adrianople that can host 10,000 people.

As he said, speaking on the radio station “Thema 104.6”, scenes behind chemical toilets were erected in the area behind Edirne.

“Obviously they want to exploit these people as a lever of pressure,” Mr. Petrovic said.

According to reports, in the area, just 500 meters from the Kastanias of Evros, an informal camp is being set up, as well as a market with water retailers.

Refugees and immigrants say they will not back down, believing that as their numbers increase, the pressure on Greece will increase.

Turkey is not only a major NATO country, but is the second most militarily powerful country in the NATO alliance. As Turkey pressures Greece, a much weaker and poorer NATO country, who will other powerful NATO countries side with? Greece or Turkey? Given Germany’s longer history of allying with Turkey — the fact that they have been allies since Germany unified in 1871, and the fact that the Ottoman Empire was part of the axis in World War One — I suspect that Germany will be on the side of Turkey. By encouraging the migrants to enter Europe, Turkey is breaking down the cohesion of the EU Bloc.

Outer EU countries like Austria, Italy, Spain, Greece and Hungary will be the ones to immediately fave the wave of migrants, and they will the most resistant to taking them in. Germany is hoping that countries like Greece will be the shield of the EU from the migrants. In fact, just yesterday Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU Commission, did a talk in Greece in which she said: “This border is not only a Greek border, it is also a European border … I thank Greece for being our European aspida [shield] in these times” (brackets mine). Countries like Greece will be adamantly against the idea of being the shock absorbers of the EU. Anti-EU sentiment, more commonly known as euroskepticism, will intensify, especially with fears of the spread of coronavirus. With an intensification of euroskepticism caused the by the migrant crises, the entire situation could expose the weak binding of the EU and the whole thing could implode in an explosion of popularity for the idea of leaving the EU. Germany, in this type of context, will respond with increase in enthusiasm for the ideology of putting Germany above other certain European countries (who will be portrayed as antagonists to European unity) since they cannot be trusted. Germany will then say that security cannot just be economics based, but militarily based as well since Germany needs to become a major global superpower.

What this migrant crises is is not an invasion, but really an exposing of the brittleness of the EU.