BERLIN — Ever since the brutal crackdown on the Iranian opposition in June 2009, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s security forces and militias killed at least 250 people, more than 4,300 Iranians have fled to Turkey.

There, they are stuck in a difficult situation. The European Union has not opened its doors to people who had won so much international respect and praise for their courage in challenging Mr. Ahmadinejad’s election victory, which was widely criticized as fraudulent.

“The attitude by the E.U. is so hypocritical,” said Volker Beck, a German legislator with the opposition Greens who is a member of Parliament’s human rights committee. “Here we have European governments saying that the E.U. stands for human rights, democracy and values. But it seems that values stop when it comes to refugees. Europe is not protecting the Iranian refugees.”

The international reaction to the Iranian protesters is reminiscent of the 1956 Hungarian revolution, when tens of thousands took to the streets in Budapest to oppose the Communist regime. They were encouraged by the West to continue their struggle. But in the end, the West did nothing to help them. Scores were executed. Hundreds were given long prison sentences. Much the same is happening today in Iran.