MOSCOW (Sputnik) — European countries bear responsibility for the numerous deaths in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, as they made little effort to help refugees fleeing conflict-torn Syria and Iraq, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday.
Turkey, which has taken in some 1.8 million refugees from Syria since the conflict erupted in the country in 2011, has repeatedly blamed Europe for standing back, accepting only a tenth of that number.
"The European nations are preparing the ground for refugees to come to the Aegean and Mediterranean [seas] to drown in the sea," Erdogan said, as quoted by Haber media portal.
Erdogan has held an "open-door" policy toward Syrian migrants, despite their increasing concentration in major Turkish cities, stoking tensions with the locals.
According to the Turkish president, the cost of Syrian refugees to Turkey has now exceeded $6 billion.
According to UN data, of the 137,000 refugees who tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea for Europe in the first six months of 2015, some 2,000 are estimated to have died in the attempt.
