Turkey is deploying 1,000 special police officers along its border with Greece to stop refugees and migrants returning to its territory, the country's interior minister Suleyman Soylu, announced on Thursday. 

Soylu's comments, which included the claim that Greek authorities had injured 164 migrants, come amid a war of words between Ankara and Athens, following Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decision to suspend a 2016 migrant deal with the EU, under which Turkey halted migration flows to Europe in return for billions of euros in aid.

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Keep your borders open to refugees, United Nations tells EU

Since then, an estimated 13,000 migrants have amassed at the Turkish border with Greece in a bid to cross into Europe. Ankara has accused Greek authorities of shooting dead and injuring migrants near the border.

Athens has rejected this, saying Turkish police were helping migrants cross the border illegally.

Speaking to reporters in the northwestern border province of Edirne, Soylu said Greek police had injured dozens of migrants trying to cross the frontier.

"They wounded 164 people. They tried to push 4,900 people back to Turkey," he said. "We are deploying 1,000 special force police to the border system ... to prevent the push-back."

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UN envoy urges 'immediate diplomatic solution' in Syria's Idlib

Turkey, which has launched a military operation against Russia-backed Syrian government forces in the war-torn nation's Idlib province, hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees and has said it cannot take in any more. 

Ankara has called on the EU to give more support to its efforts in Syria and deliver more funds to care for the nearly one million people who have been displaced from the region. 

Erdogan met with EU officials on Wednesday to discuss developments in Syria and the migrants flooding the European borders, but according to Erdogan's spokesman, "no concrete proposition" on the migrants was made at the talks.

The Turkish leader met with Russia's president Vladimir Putin in Moscow today to discuss the situation in Syria.

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EU to offer 500 million euros for Syrian refugees in Turkey

The EU is preparing an additional 500 million euros ($560 million) in aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey to ease tensions with Ankara, according to EU officials. 

The funding offer arrives after EU officials accused Turkey of "blackmail" by opening its border with Greece last week to thousands of refugees attempting to reach Europe.

The money comes on top of the the six billion euros allocated in 2016 to finance programs to support millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey, part of an EU-Turkey deal that significantly cut the flow of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea to Greece.

However, Turkey's Erdogan stated on Monday that he had already rejected an EU offer of one billion euros.

"They tell us, 'we will send you a billion euros.' Who are you trying to fool? ... We don't want this money," he said. Turkey has yet to react to the latest offer.

The European Commission will also propose facilitating visas for Turkish nationals heading to Europe, with the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announcing on Wednesday that 170 million euros would be allocated in emergency aid "for the most vulnerable in Syria."  

Rights groups have accused Turkey of using migrants as bargaining chips by pushing them towards the Greek border, but have also condemned Europe for failing to provide greater assistance.