Turkey Threatens To Send '15K Refugees A Month' To Germany And Netherlands

Turkey’s Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu threatened to send 15,000 refugees per month to the European Union Thursday after Germany and the Netherlands's banned Ankara officials from attending Turkish political rallies in their countries last week.

"If you want, we’ll send the 15,000 refugees to you that we don’t send each month and blow your mind. You have to keep in mind that you can’t design a game in this region in spite of Turkey,” Soylu said in a speech Thursday.

Read: Turkey May Cancel EU Refugee Deal After NATO Drawback

Soylu referenced last year's deal between Turkey and the European Union in which Europe agreed to pay Ankara $6.8 billion to lessen the number of Syrian refugees crossing the Aegean Sea into Greece. Under that agreement, Greek officials were obliged to send all refugees that tried to cross into Europe through Greece back to Turkey. Subsequently, Ankara pledged to keep at least 2.7 million Syrian refugees in "decent" conditions in shelters.

More than 1 million migrants reportedly traveled to Europe by sea in 2015, while nearly 35,000 did so by land, according to The International Organization for Migration.

Solyu accused European governments of pushing for a “no vote” in the April 16th referendum “to prevent [Turkey] from becoming strong in the future.” Roughly 1.4 million Turks in Germany and approximately 380,000 in the Netherlands have the right to vote on the potential legislation.

The pivotal referendum is aimed at boosting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's presidential powers, while weakening those of the Turkish parliament. Erdogan likened the European government's decision to ban the Ankara officials to “Nazi practices.”

Anti-migrant sentiments have been present across the European continent as many have viewed Islamic values as incompatible with European ones. Fifty-five percent of 10,000 individuals surveyed in 10 European countries supported ending migration from Muslim nations entirely, according to a study conducted by Chatham House, a foreign affairs think tank based in London.

Tension was widely apparent in the re-election Thursday of the Netherlands' Conservative Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who recently banned two Turkish ministers from addressing Turks at a political rally in Rotterdam.