Erdogan threatens to flood Europe with some 5.5 million refugees

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued with his threats to "open the gates" to a new wave of refugees into Europe, warning on Sunday that some 5.5 million migrants would stream across the Turkish border unless Turkey is given international support and a safe zone is set up in northern Syria. 

"If they do not give us the necessary support in this struggle, then we will not be able to stop the 3.65 million refugees from Syria and another 2 million people who will reach our borders from Idlib," Erdogan told a rally in Malatya, Turkey's Eastern Anatolia region. 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday that Ankara should not try to coerce either Greece or Europe in its attempts to get support for a plan to resettle Syrian refugees in northern Syria. 

The threats come amid a spike in arrivals of migrants on the Aegean islands from neighboring Turkey.