Authoritarian Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday again threatened to “open borders” with Greece for would-be migrants seeking to reach central and western Europe via the latter, essentially a repeat of a failed March 2020 operation to breach the land borders between the two countries at the Evros River and generate a new “migration crisis” for Europe.

U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and James Lankford (R-Okla.) led Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Angus King (I-Maine), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in a letter urging President Biden to hold Turkey’s President Erdogan accountable for his recent efforts to disenfranchise Turkey’s Kurdish population, undercut political pluralism in the country, and tighten his grip on power through anti-democratic means.

The meeting of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Brussels on Monday "was a step towards a quieter summer," underlined government sources.