Millions of people could pour into the European Union from Turkey in “another wave of migration” if the country’s economic crisis escalates into a full-blown collapse, some observers have claimed.

Mainstream media periodical Newsweek suggests such a scenario “could have major political consequences” for globalist leaders such as Germany’s Angela Merkel, who effectively opened the EU’s borders unilaterally in 2015 but has been under pressure since the onset of the subsequent migrant crisis and a historically poor performance in the 2017 federal elections.

Turkey’s foreign policy is becoming increasingly erratic Islamist leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has eroded the secular order imposed by the country’s modern founder Kemal Atatürk, greatly increased his personal power, and purged some 106,000 public officials, 21,000 teachers, and 4,400 judges and prosecutors since mid-2016, according to monitors.

The pitch of Erdoğan’s bombastic rhetoric has only increased with the imposition of economic sanctions by the Trump administration in the United States over the detention of Christian pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been incarcerated for two years without actually being convicted of anything.

Turkish Prime Minister Says Turkey ‘Will Fight’ U.S. If Necessary, After Erdogan Threatens ‘Ottoman Slap’ https://t.co/H43ImP695W — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 15, 2018

Turkey is thought to be hosting over four million migrants, hundreds of thousands of whom formerly carried on to the Aegean Sea and crossed to Greece in the European Union, almost always with a view to continuing to the generous welfare states of Western and Northern Europe.

Erdoğan was persuaded to bring this influx under partial control in exchange for several billion euros, but this may cease to be a profitable arrangement as his economy slides out of control — especially if another million migrants are sent over his border by an impending Russian-backed Syrian government offensive against Idlib province, a jihadist stronghold currently held by a former affiliate of al-Qaeda.

Erdogan has his finger on the trigger https://t.co/8F3MvbF6UR — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 17, 2017

The Turkish government has shown absolutely no qualms about threatening to open the floodgates to Europe in the past, with foreign minister Süleyman Soylu warning they could send “15,000 refugees to you… each month and blow your mind” to pressure Brussels into paying the multi-billion deal.

As recently as April 2018 the Greek government — regularly menaced with the prospect of an actual military invasion by its Islamic neighbour — accused Turkey of allowing a sudden surge of migrants across the Aegean, in order to ensure EU payments to Ankara were approved.

Turkey Threatens to Invade Greece and Seize Aegean Islands https://t.co/B4nrQ0VDij — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 23, 2018

Newsweek cites some observers who hope Erdoğan will not be tempted to send migrants on to Europe, however — if only because the payments the bloc maked to him to keep them are made in foreign currency, which will become increasingly valuable to his regime as the Turkish lira plummets.

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery