TURKEY: Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay says the number of Syrian refugees sheltering in Turkey has hit one million

Record ID: 274597

  • Title: TURKEY: Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay says the number of Syrian refugees sheltering in Turkey has hit one million
  • Date: 20th June 2014
  • Summary: ANKARA, TURKEY (JUNE 19, 2014) (REUTERS) TURKISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, BESIR ATALAY, HOLDING NEWS CONFERENCE OFFICIALS AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, BESIR ATALAY, SAYING: "We have 22 camps and each of them has a population of 35-40 thousand, like a small town. It has been four years and 218,637 refugees are sheltering at camps.
  • Embargoed: 5th July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4B1T5NECIOFT3LJR4A4H6VX6U
  • Story Text: The number of Syrians in refugee camps and cities in Turkey has reached 1.05 million, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told a news conference on Thursday (June 19).

    "We have 22 camps and each of them has a population of 35-40 thousand, like a small town. It has been four years and 218,637 refugees are sheltering in camps. Many others are in cities. Our assessments show that the number of Syrian refugees at camps and in the cities has reached 1.05 million," he said.
    Ankara has seen Syria's three-year-long conflict spilling across its borders occasionally, with mortar shells exploding on its soil, causing civilian deaths. However, it has maintained an "open border" policy to refugees fleeing the conflict between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels in Syria.
    Turkey, which shares a 900-km border with Syria, has been among the fiercest opponents of Assad and has been housing tens of thousands of refugees.
    Meanwhile Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would dispatch tents and humanitarian aid to Iraqi city of Arbil to shelter Iraqi Turkmens fleeing violence.

    "As of today, we will dispatch 20,000 tents to the region (Iraq). We are also working on distributing food and medical aid there. The delegation that was in the region held talks on these details. We can send up to 100,000 tents," he said.
    The lightning offensive by militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other Sunni fighters threatens to fragment Iraq and leaves Turkey facing a widening Islamist insurgency in two of its southern neighbours, with ISIL also making territorial gains in Syria near the Turkish border.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register