Erdoğan urges Muslim countries to help Rohingya

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sept. 10 urged Muslim countries to "use every means available" to stop the "cruelty" perpetrated against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

The United Nations appealed for urgent aid to deal with a humanitarian crisis unfolding in southern Bangladesh after the number of Rohingya fleeing Myanmar neared 300,000, just two weeks after violence erupted there.

"We want to work with the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh to prevent the humanitarian plight in the region," Erdoğan said at the opening session of an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in the Kazakh capital Astana.

Erdoğan said Turkey had offered aid, adding that it expected that Bangladeshi authorities admit and help Rohingya Muslims fleeing the violence.

"International organizations and we, as Muslim countries in particular, should fight together by using every means available to stop that cruelty," he said.

Turkey last week sent 1,000 tons of aid for the refugees in Bangladesh after  the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) was allowed to distribute food and clothing in Rakhine state following a phone call between Erdoğan and Aung San Suu Kyii Myanmar's leader.

The agency is planning to eventually distribute 10,000 tons of food, medicine and clothes in the region.

Erdoğan had previously promised to raise the Rohingya issue at the annual meeting of U.N. General Assembly later this month.

The president also raised the issue in his bilatarl meetings in Astana with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Pakistani Presdient Manoon Hussain, Afghan Presdient Ashraf Gani, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid, Bakir...