Since 10 days more than 3000 Refugees are protesting in Edirne/turkey. They refuse to take the dangerous crossing to greece and demand for a safe passage into the eu. After they were rejected at the border, the protest resettled to the central park in the frontier city of Edirne.
According to reports in the media 5 foreigners have been arrested today (September 22, 2015). They are accused of helping refugees. Above that 1500 persons were deported to eastern turkey. Still the protest continues. Yesterday a few people started a hunger strike demanding open borders.
In contrast to their behaviour at site turkish politicians announced to grant a safe passage, if a country is ready to host the people concerned. Unfortunately such a country hasn't been found yet.
In the west, the protest didn't get too much media attention so far. This has to change. The last weeks have shown that safe passages are possible, if a sufficient number of people take a stand for it! Here too solidarity with the refugees and pressuring the eu and the turkish government is necessary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W89XGBtTjQY
Rectification
Comment cited and translated from: anonymous person. Created on Wed, 23.09.2015 - 17:22.
"According to valerio cataldi the individuals were not deported to eastern turkey, but mainly to izmir.
At the moment it seems like a new attempt of eviction is about to happen in edirne."
today the protest was finally dispersed
the last refugees were brought into a deportation center.
#CrossingNoMore revisited - New shortfilm on the protest
In September 2015, thousands of refugees gathered in a number of cities in Turkey, such as Istanbul, Edirne. Their goal was to cross over the Turkish borders all together and reach Europe. The scale of the march in Turkey was absolutely unprecedented. People carried banners and signs addressing the European Union, and some signs even referred personally to Germany’s chancelor Angela Merkel.
https://youtu.be/A60c1FyBHYc
In a press release, the demonstrators referred to themselves as migrants who were fighting for their rights. Many of them marched together with their whole families but carried only some bags or just a backpack. Although the majority were from Syria, other nationalities were present too. Some had lived in Turkey for years, while others had e.g. just come from Lebanon or Jordan. The people who camped in parks or at the highway waited for Europe to open its borders. This never happened. The Turkish police pushed migrants to go to Ankara, Istanbul or Izmir and arrested hundreds of them.