Turkey: Erdogan slams EU's 'inhumane' refugee policy

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed European inaction and "insensitivity" over their handling of the current refugee crisis during an address in the Turkish capital of Ankara, Thursday. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the B20 conference, the Turkish leader said that European countries had turned the Mediterranean Sea, "the cradle of the one of the world's most ancient civilisations, into a graveyard," stating that EU nations were "part of the sin of the death of every single refugee." Erdogan also called for an account of what happened to the three year-old toddler Aylan Kurdi who was photographed by Turkish journalist Nilufer Demir after his body was washed ashore on Turkey's Aegean coast. He added that what drowned in the see were not only refugees but also "our humanity." The photo of the drowned Syrian boy began trending on social media after he died along with at least 12 Syrian refugees off the coast of Turkey en route to Greece. His family were fleeing the Kurdish town of Kobane. Four other children were among those killed as the group attempted to reach Kos from the Bodrum peninsula. Over 350,000 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe in 2015 alone, the International Organisation for Migration reports. Over 230,000 have landed on Greek shores with around 115,000 managing to reach Italy. An estimated 2,600 of those attempting to reach Europe have lost their lives so far in 2015, a figure expected to top the 3,279 migrants and refugees who died in 2014.