Turkey will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said, as Ankara responded on Friday to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an air strike by Syrian government forces in Syria's northwestern Idlib region.The attack more than doubled Turkey's military death toll in February in the region south of its border, and raised the prospect that President Tayyip Erdogan would launch a full-scale operation against Russian-backed Syrian government forces.
In anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Idlib, Turkish police, coastguard and border security officials have been ordered to stand down on refugees' land and sea crossings towards Europe, the Turkish official told Reuters.