Turkey says opening frontier for migrants will not hurt ties with West
ISTANBUL, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Turkey does not believe its decision to allow some of the millions of migrants it hosts to cross into Europe will have an impact on its ties with the West, Turkey's communications director said on Friday.
In response to the escalating conflict and the killing of 33 of its troops Thursday in Syria's Idlib region, Ankara threw open its western land and sea borders to outgoing migrants.
In comments to reporters, Fahrettin Altun said that migrants were now Europe's and the world's problem too, adding that Ankara had "no choice" but ease border controls after not receiving enough support in hosting some 3.7 million Syrian refugees.
(Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
