Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras came out swinging at a talk organized during the World Economic Forum in Davos, castigating his European partners and calling Turkey an “aggressive neighbor.”
Tsipras was speaking about stabilizing the Mediterranean and addressing the migration crisis.
“The problem in Europe now is that there are a lot of countries that believe that if the problem is not in their backyards, it’s not their problem. And this is an existential problem for Europe as a whole.”
He went on to say that countries in the European Union couldn’t only take the benefits of membership, but also had to share in the obligations.
“It is necessary to face this problem not as a Mediterranean problem that has to do with Greece and Italy, but as a European and international problem,” Tsipras told a panel at the World Economic Forum.
Tsipras also said that the migration and refugee crisis wasn’t the fault of the people fleeing, but the question of why these people can’t stay in their own countries.
“I think that the problem is not the flows (of refugees and migrants). It’s not these people that are trying to find a new life in Europe, but why these people cannot live in their own countries.”
In a follow up question, Tsipras referred to Turkey as an “aggressive neighbor” and called Turkey’s behavior “unpredictable.”
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