I’m surprised Erdogan didn’t slip up and call it an “invasion force.”

Tirana (AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday urged Europe to accept more migrants and refugees coming in an unprecedented wave across the Mediterranean, adding that his country has taken in more than two million.

“Turkey has spent $5.6 billion (4.9 billion euros) on hosting and taking care of more than 1.7 million Syrians and some 300,000 Iraqi nationals accommodated in refugee camps or in different Turkish cities,” Erdogan told reporters in the Albanian capital while on an official visit.

“We all witnessed how immigrants were dying in the Mediterranean or elsewhere, and we clearly saw Europe’s attitude towards them.”

“Can we remain insensitive towards those poor and homeless people? Shouldn’t the developed countries offer them a solution?”

Erdogan said European countries “also have their obligations and everyone should do their duty”.

With more than 1,800 dead this year alone, 2015 is shaping up as the deadliest ever for migrants and refugees, many of them fleeing civil war in Syria, seeking to reach Europe via the Mediterranean.

Erdogan’s comments came as the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, was due to unveil plans for a mandatory redistribution of asylum seekers across the bloc.