Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov (L) shakes hands with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during a joint press conference in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 14, 2015. Turkey and Bulgaria on Wednesday pledged to boost cooperation on the Syrian refugee crisis. (Xinhua/He Canling)
ISTANBUL, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkey and Bulgaria on Wednesday pledged to boost cooperation on the Syrian refugee crisis.
The two countries made the pledge at a joint press conference between visiting Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu following their meeting in Istanbul.
During the conference, the Bulgarian prime minister stressed full support for Turkey in tackling the influx of more than two million refugees from war-torn Syria.
"We called upon European Union countries to allocate funding to Ankara so that the migrant influx will be managed effectively," Borisov said.
There are 66,000 new-born Syrian babies in Turkey. "They all need financial aid," he added.
Turkey has spent almost eight billion U.S. dollars alone to meet the expenses of the refugees.
During the Europe visit last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the EU to share the burden.
Borisov highlighted that Sofia is among the supporters of Turkey's proposal of creating a safe zone in northern Syria.
"We sent a letter to EU countries to consider immediate steps in the establishment of a safe zone in Syria," he said.
A safe zone would facilitate the return of the refugees to their homeland, the two leaders agreed.
"If a safe zone had been created in northern Syria three years ago, millions of Syrians wouldn't have left their country," Davutoglu stressed, as some EU countries are beset as well by a sudden influx of refugees.
Davutoglu also asked Borisov to strengthen intelligence cooperation with Turkey in detecting terrorists, who are infiltrating into the country with refugees.
Turkey adopted an open-door policy toward Syrian refugees after the neighbor was plunged into chaos in 2011. "But it is very probable that some malevolent people sneaked into Turkey as refugees," Davutoglu said.
"Ankara can only cope with the infiltration with the help of strong and concrete cooperation among the intelligent units," the Turkish leader stressed, calling on EU countries to increase their cooperation with Turkey.
