Turkey to hold summit with EU leaders on refugee crisis: Erdoğan

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey will host a summit in Istanbul on March 17 with the leaders of France, Germany and possibly Britain to discuss the migrant issue after Turkey started allowing them to try to cross into Europe late February.

"We will come together in Istanbul next Tuesday" with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, Erdoğan told reporters aboard his plane back from talks in Brussels on March 10. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is likely to attend at the summit as well, he added.

Turkey was not considering closing its border gates to Europe for now and that Greece must open its own gates, he said.

Erdoğan said that in his talks with EU officials in Brussels he stressed that Turkey-EU relations should be addressed from a broad perspective.

Revising the March 18, 2016 migrant deal, updating of the Customs Union agreement, resolving the visa liberalization issue for Turkish nationals, the opening of new accession negotiation chapters, rapid transfer of a total of 6 billion euros in funds and additional funds were on his agenda, Erdoğan said.

Turkey conveyed its expectations to both NATO and the European Union during talks in Brussels and waits for a positive outcome at a meeting of the Alliance on March 11, Erdoğan said.

Erdoğan said he asked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to manage oil fields in northeast Syria's Deir al-Zor region, instead of "terrorists exploiting" them.

"I made the offer to Mr. Putin that if he gives financial support, we can do the construction and through the oil obtained here, we can help the destroyed Syria get on its feet," Erdoğan stated.

Erdoğan said Putin was...