TURKEY: SNC has no expectations for UNSC meeting.

Record ID: 346666

  • Title: TURKEY: SNC has no expectations for UNSC meeting.
  • Date: 30th August 2012
  • Summary: REFUGEES FETCHING WATER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE, SAMIR KASIM, SAYING: "If there is going to be a safe zone on the other side of the border of course we would like to stay there because even to get a bottle of water we wait have to wait for hours." MORE OF REFUGEE CAMP (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE, MUHAMMED OMER, SAYING: "If they set up a buffer zone i
  • Embargoed: 14th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA21V79000BCH38E8AL833O3P6F
  • Story Text: Ten thousand displaced Syrians near Turkish border need food, water and medicine, says opposition Syrian National Council.
    Thousands of displaced Syrians are being forced to wait in sweltering conditions at border crossings.
    A member of Syrian National Council (SNC) Adib Shishakly said on Thursday (August 30) the SNC had no expectation that the international community would provide help to the Syrian people.
    "We absolutely don't have any expectation. Syria already lost over 30,000 of its citizens. The whole international community has been watching so why we should expect anything to be done now? It's been almost a year and a half and nothing been done so far. The Syrian people decided to go on their own without any international help and I know we would succeed," said Adib Shishakly.
    Refugees from northern Syria say Turkey has closed its borders to Syrians without passports because its refugee camps, home now to more than 80,000, are full.
    "On the humanitarian issue, it's very bad, especially when Turkey closed its borders, we have over now 10,000 refugees lining up behind the Turkish border. They are in need of food, water and medicine," Shishakly added.
    Turkish officials have promised that they will erect four new camps that will house 40,000 people.
    Turkey has floated the idea of a "safe zone" to be set up for civilians under foreign protection as fighting intensifies in a 17-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
    Syrian refugees in Karkamis expressed hope on Thursday that a safe zone would be created.
    "If there is going to be a safe zone on the other side of the border of course we would like to stay there because even to get a bottle of water we wait have to wait for hours," said Syrian refugee, Samir Kasim.
    Up to 5,000 refugees a day have been crossing into Turkey over the past two weeks and the United Nations warned on Tuesday (August 28) that up to 200,000 people could settle in Turkey if the conflict worsens.
    Although there is no sign divided world powers are ready to back a safe zone, as rebels and aid organisations would like, U.N. Security Council foreign ministers are expected to discuss the idea during a meeting on Thursday that is expected to focus on easing Syria's humanitarian crisis as the absence of the top U.S., Russian and Chinese diplomats will likely highlight the body's paralysis over how to end the 17-month conflict.
    More than 200,000 Syrians, and as many as 300,000, according to some aid groups, have poured out of Syria since the uprising against Assad's rule began last year, while up to 3 million are displaced. Turkey, which has seen the highest refugee influx, wants a solution to the problem.
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