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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to throw open Turkey's gates for migrants and refugees after the European Parliament voted to suspend EU membership negotiations with Ankara. The Telegraph reports.

“If you go any further, these border gates will be opened. Neither me nor my people will be affected by these empty threats,” Mr Erdogan said at a women’s justice congress in Istanbul on Friday. 

“It wouldn’t matter if all of you approved the vote,” he added, referring to the European Parliament’s motion a day earlier. 

Notably on Thursday MEPs approved a motion calling on the European Commission and member states’ governments to freeze Turkey’s accession process in response to the Turkish government’s “disproportionate” reaction to this summer’s failed coup. 

Turkey hosts an estimated 2.7 million Syrian refugees, but it is uncertain whether Europe would experience a similar influx to 2015 even if Mr. Erdogan did act on his threat.