Erdogan slams 'crime against humanity' in scant refugee response
Turkish president criticizes int'l community for doing little to help refugees
"No country can attain the welfare and peace they desire by closing themselves to the outer world," Erdogan said Saturday at an iftar (breaking of fast) program in Turkey's southeastern Mardin province.
He stated that the countries that refused to open their doors to the refugees avoided contributing to Turkey’s refugee response.
"Now, in our country, there are two million refugees. In Europe as a whole, this figure is not even 200,000," he said.
"We did not abandon any victims and or the oppressed at the hands of the cruel, and never will."
Erdogan noted that Ankara sought peace and protection of rights for all peoples in the region, and not for any single ethnicity or faith group.
President Erdogan thanked U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres and Hollywood star and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie for their visit to Turkey Saturday.
There are 25 camps hosting Syrians in Turkey, 16 of which are container cities and the remaining nine consist of tents.
Turkey shares a 900-kilometer border with Syria and has sheltered more than 1.7 million Syrians, according to the U.N., with more arriving because of ongoing bloodshed in the war-torn country.
According to government figures, the country has spent more than $6 billion so far for refugees while the international community's help has amounted to $300 million.
The Turkish president also criticized the major powers’ laissez-faire response to the Kurdish group PYD taking over Tal Abyad district neighboring Turkey. Any solution that was incompatible with the region’s history, sociology and demographics would not work, Erdogan stressed.
Fighting between Kurdish forces and Daesh rebels around the Syrian town of Tal Abyad has fueled a new wave of desperate civilians trying to escape.
According to Turkish officials, a total of 20,997 Syrian refugees fleeing clashes in Syria’s town of Tal Abyad have entered Turkey’s Sanliurfa province through the Akcakale border crossing in the past two weeks.
The U.N. announced in a report on Thursday that the global refugee count has hit 60 million people.
