Angry EU diplomats keep mum over Erdogan’s blackmail to keep migrants at bay

European Union ambassadors voiced outrage at a meeting this week over what they see as an attempt by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to "blackmail" the bloc by allowing migrants to mass at Greece's border, diplomatic sources said.

Some envoys conceded, however, that Erdogan has the EU in a bind because its member states cannot agree how to deal with refugees and - to avoid a replay of the 2015/16 migration crisis - believe the bloc will have to cough up more money for Turkey to go on keeping a lid on arrivals in Europe.

"The EU is the target of blackmail," one diplomat told Monday's closed-door meeting in Brussels, details of which were relayed to Reuters by multiple diplomatic sources.

The EU has struggled to respond as thousands of migrants have arrived at Greece's border from Turkey in recent days. Its ties with Ankara are already strained over security and human rights, as well as Turkish hydrocarbon drilling off Cyprus.

In 2015-2016 the chaotic arrival of more than a million people from the Middle East stretched the bloc's security and welfare systems and fueled political support for far-right groups.

The EU sealed a deal with Turkey in March, 2016, under which Ankara stopped people on its soil from heading to Europe. In exchange, the bloc offered 6 billion euros in aid for the more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees Turkey is hosting.

Erdogan wants EU cash in hand now

But Erdogan has long complained that the money is slow to come and channeled through aid groups, not Turkey's budget. After Russian-backed Syrian government forces killed Turkish soldiers in an air strike in Syria last week, Ankara signaled it would walk away from its pact with the EU altogether.

"You sleep with the devil, you wake...