Article content

ANKARA/ISTANBUL — Turkey will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said, as Ankara responded on Friday to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in a strike by Syrian government forces in Syria’s northwestern Idlib region.

Opening the frontier could unleash a repeat of the migration crisis of 2015-2016, when more than a million people arrived by sea in Greece and crossed the Balkans on foot, until Turkey shut its frontier in a deal with the EU.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Turkey, enraged by Russia-backed attack on its troops, says it will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe Back to video

By the early hours of Friday, refugees and migrants were already making their way to frontier posts. The official said police and border guards had been told to stand down and allow exit by both land and sea.

One column of migrants made their way towards the frontier on foot in the early morning light, with one man carrying a small child in his arms. Others headed there in taxis.

“We heard about it on the television,” said Afghan migrant Sahin Nebizade, 16, in a group packed into one of three taxis parked on a highway on the outskirts of Istanbul.