Turkey Pledges to Help Syria's Assyrians
AKP Interim Chairperson Numan Kurtulmuş received representatives from Turkey's major Assyrian Christian associations on the matter of improving the living conditions of roughly 400 Assyrian Christians who fled from the civil war in Syria.
The meeting took place in Mardin province on Friday with the participation of Mardin governor Veysel Dalmaz and various representative from Assyrian associations including Evgil Türker, Tuma Çelik, Bessam İshak and Sait Melki.
"Our demands to improve the conditions of Assyrian refugees located in Turkey and Syria have been accepted by the government," Evgil Türker, chairperson of Assyrian Associations Federation, said.
"There are 1,5 million Assyrians living in various cities in Syria. We demanded help for the people in Aleppo. The government pledged to create a safe corridor to supply food to Syria's Assyrians."
Türker added that even though Mardin and Şırnak provinces were unavailable for immigration under normal circumstances, exceptions have been made for Syria's Assyrians.
"Assyrian refugees thrive in poor conditions in Turkey. Most of them had to leave their homes, others fled from their poor conditions in Syria. We told officials about the human crisis, they promised to do their best,"
Gebro Tokgöz, an Assyrian politician, said. (MHİ/NV/BM)