Ankara,                    -            President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he would keep Turkey’s border open for refugees until the EU had met all his de­mands, while comparing Greece’s response to the crisis to the Nazis.

“Until all Turkey’s expectations, including free movement, ... up­dating of the customs union and financial assistance, are tangibly met, we will continue the practice on our borders,” he said in a tele­vised speech.

Turkey’s decision at the end of February to re-open its border for refugees sparked a row with Brus­sels, as well as harsh exchanges with Greece.

Greece has tear-gassed thou­sands of migrants trying to break through and been accused of beat­ing and stripping migrants of their belongings if they made it across the border.

“There is no difference between what the Nazis did and those im­ages from the Greek border,” Erdo­gan said.

Greece has denied using vio­lence and accused Turkey of push­ing desperate people into danger­ous attempts to enter Europe.

Erdogan said he opened the gates in order to pressure Europe into providing greater assistance with the Syrian conflict, where Turkey has fought to push back a regime offensive on the last rebel stronghold of Idlib.

“With the warming of the weath­er in the spring, the influx of ir­regular migrants heading to Eu­rope will not be limited to Greece but spread all over the Mediterra­nean,” he warned.

But he reiterated that Turkey hopes for a fresh agreement with Brussels ahead of the next EU lead­ers’ summit on March 26.

Turkey already hosts some four million refugees -- most of them Syria -- and fears another mass in­flux as the regime, backed by Rus­sia and Iran, pushes to retake Idlib.

Although Erdogan and his Rus­sian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed a ceasefire for the province last week, previous deals have proved temporary and the Turkish president said Wednesday that mi­nor violations have already been reported.

Turkey agreed to stop migrant departures under a 2016 deal with Brussels, but says it has not received all of the six billion euros promised, nor have several other demands been met, including enhanced trade and visa arrangements.