Turkey deploys police to Greek border to deter migrants from returning

Ankara is deploying 1,000 police officers to its border with Greece to prevent migrants amassing there from going back to Turkey, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Thursday.

"A thousand special force police officers are deployed from this morning to the Meric river on the border, fully equipped, to prevent people being pushed back," he said.

The minister also accused Greek police of wounding 164 migrants during recent tensions at the border that saw rocks hurled at Greek officers and volleys of tear gas fired at the migrants.

Greece has been bolstering its border security measures after Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the country would no longer work to stem the migrant influx into the EU, later saying that the problem could be solved if the EU supported its military action in Syria.

Now, with Turkey sending more forces to the border as well, the thousands of people who have gathered there could find themselves effectively squeezed between two police lines.

The EU has so far demonstrated little appetite for doing as Erdogan wishes, however, instead pledging to back Greece and provide it with financial aid to defend the EU's borders.    

In a statement, the bloc said it "strongly rejects Turkey's use of migratory pressure for political purposes."