Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan met Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), in Ankara on Thursday, as the agency’s chief announced plans to open a UNRWA office in the Turkish capital within the coming weeks.
“I was pleased to meet with Philippe Lazzarini, (UNRWA) Commissioner-General. I hope that the work carried out with great dedication for the Palestinian people will lead to concrete and lasting results that end their suffering,” Erdogan wrote on the Turkish social media platform NSosyal following the meeting at the presidential state guesthouse.
Lazzarini, in turn, expressed his gratitude, highlighting the first lady’s leadership role on the issue of Palestine.
Ambassador Mehmet Gulluoglu, Türkiye’s coordinator for humanitarian aid to Palestine, was also present at the meeting.
Ankara office
UNRWA is set to open an office in Ankara within weeks, Lazzarini said, while talking to the media.
"We have signed the final agreement with the government of Türkiye, and this time it has also endorsed by the parliament," he told reporters, adding that it was "a question of weeks" until it opened.
The move came a day after the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said it was going through a "dire" financial crisis that had forced it to fire 571 of its Gaza staff who had continued working for it after being evacuated from the war-ravaged territory.
UNRWA said the "extremely difficult" decision was down to funding issues sparked by a fall in the voluntary contributions it relies on following a campaign of increasingly harsh criticism and attacks by Israel.
For more than seven decades, the agency has provided aid and assistance to Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, and was still operating "despite many, many constraints", Lazzarini said.
Last year, Israel banned UNRWA from operating inside the country, and Lazzarini said it was also seeking to halt its operations in the Palestinian territories.
"There is a desire by the government of Israel to dismantle UNRWA, to make sure that the agency has no future role in Gaza and possibly in the occupied Palestinian territories," he said.
"If the agency cannot, or has to stop operating in Gaza or the occupied West Bank, this will create a huge vacuum. Basically, there is absolutely no partner or capacity to take over public services at such a scale and scope, and with the community trust that the agency has enjoyed until now," he said.
