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Turkey has announced it will no longer hold back people who wish to go to Europe and seek asylum there amid an escalation in Syria. Some have been quick to rush towards coasts and borders before Ankara changes its mind.
Would-be irregular immigrants have started trickling closer to Europe. The hopefuls are gathering in the Edirne province, which borders Greece and Bulgaria, as well as on Turkey's Aegean coast close to the Greek island of Lesbos, AFP reported.
Anadolu Agency posted drone footage of groups of people walking across a field in Edirne, presumably filmed in the early hours of Friday morning.
Scenes of people carrying backpacks and waving to the cameras were shown by the Turkish media and spread on social media.
The ability of the potential migrants to reach Europe is not guaranteed even if Turkey does not reverse its decision. Bulgaria and Greece have erected walls along their land borders with Turkey in response to the migrant crisis. The EU stepped up maritime patrols in the Mediterranean to stop people from reaching its territory via sea routes.
Comment: That was California during the winter of 1861-1862. Further north in Washington and Oregon that winter, they experienced all that rain plus an intensely cold freeze. Speculating on what caused that extreme winter, John Caldbick at HistoryLink.org writes: Indeed, this volcanic eruption on the African shore of the Red Sea occurred in May 1861. But just weeks later, the Great Comet of 1861 became visible to the naked eye...
According to censuses in Europe, populations there declined in numbers in the early 1860s, the first such declines since the early 1700s, suggesting that excess deaths occurred from cholera and plague outbreaks that overlapped with the above events.
1861-1862 seems then to have been something of a nexus point in the recurring rhythms of natural climate change. Today, the US isn't quite being torn apart by civil war, but the social climate is nevertheless being reflected in the natural climate.