Bulgarian authorities deny reports that they deliberately opened a dam on the Evros river to help protect the Greek-Turkish border ahead of a brewing conflict, calling them “fake news.”
Turkey opened their border after acting as a containment zone for many migrants purportedly fleeing the war zones in Syria.
However, several migrants appear to be of other Middle Eastern provenances and even from Sub-Saharan African origin.
Turkey decided to weaponize their large migrant population, who viewed the Eastern Mediterranean country as a stepping stone to cushy Northwestern European welfare states in search of a better life, economically speaking.
The Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the decision to open their borders with Europe after the Turkish army suffered their highest numbers of casualties in one day since entering Syria in 2015.
The Greek Reporter revealed the move from the Bulgarian authorities to open a dam to make crossing conditions harder for migrants wishing to gain access to the EU, and subsequently, the Schengen zone.
According to The Greek Reporter:
The opening of the Ivaylovgrad Dam accordingly resulted in rising levels of the Evros River, Star TV reported.
As the standoff between thousands of migrants and refugees on the Turkish side of the Evros and Greek security forces continues, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis met his German counterpart Angela Merkel in Berlin and stressed that Greece and Europe cannot be blackmailed.
He pointed out that if the Turkish President wants a review of the EU-Turkey agreement on migration “which he has, himself, effectively demolished,” then he must take the following actions: Remove the desperate people from Evros and stop spreading disinformation and propaganda.
However, Bulgaria formally denied the report:
Contacted by AFP, Ivan Dimov, an advisor to Bulgaria’s foreign minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, denounced the claims. “Bulgaria was not asked by Greece to flood the Ivaylovgrad dam”, he said.
Environment Minister Emil Dimitrov told Bulgarian TV channel bTV the reports were “fake news”.
“Nobody has allowed such a thing,” he said. “Every month, I sign a plan on water use for the 52 major dams in the country” which is “valid through the following month”.
Satellite images also suggest the dam was not flooded. Additionally, authorities were also able to source a photo used in The Greek Reporter to 2015.
This article has been updated to reflect new developments.