Turkey ups aid efforts for Rohingya Muslims

Turkey will provide 10,000 tons of aid to help Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated on Sept. 6, calling on world leaders to do more to help. 

Earlier on, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Erdoğan held a phone call to discuss the plight of nearly 150,000 Rohingyas who have fled northwest Myanmar to Bangladesh since violence broke out on Aug. 25. 

"I spoke with the president [Aung San Suu Kyi] yesterday. They opened the doors after our call," Erdoğan told a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara, adding that the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) will deliver 10,000 tons of aid after delivering the initial 1,000 tons. 

"The second stage is 10,000 tons. Aid will be distributed," he added.  

During his speech, Erdoğan said that his wife Emine Erdoğan, his son Bilal Erdoğan, Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, AKP Deputy Chair Ravza Kavakçı Kan and senior Turkish aid officials will head to Bangladesh to visit Rohingya refugee camps on Sept. 7 and 8. They will oversee the delivery of aid by TİKA and Turkish Red Crescent. 

"There is also the United Nation General Assembly approaching. It will start on Sept. 19. This issue will be a significant agenda point in our meetings there," he said. 

While noting that some of the footage, pictures and news reports regarding the Rohingya "have nothing to do with reality," Erdoğan said "there is the reality that causes the victimization of millions of people." 

"We will activate all international mechanisms in order for the Rohingya Muslims to not become victims of regional calculations," he said, adding that he had...