Turkey will provide 10,000 tonnes of aid to help Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.
Around 150,000 Rohingyas have fled northwest Myanmar to Bangladesh since violence broke out on August 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base. The ensuing clashes and a military counter-offensive have killed at least 400 people and continue to displace Rohingya Muslim at a pace refugee camps are unequipped to handle.
"I spoke with [Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi] yesterday. They opened the doors after our call," Erdogan told a meeting of his governing AK Party in Ankara.
He said Turkey's International Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) was already delivering 1,000 tonnes of aid to camps for the displaced. "The second stage is 10,000 tonnes. Aid will be distributed," Erdogan said.
Overseeing aid
Emine Erdogan, the president’s wife, is heading to Bangladesh to oversee the distribution of aid to Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and to highlight the crisis, Turkish officials have said.
Officials from Erdogan's office said Emine will be accompanied by her son, Bilal Erdogan, the family and social affairs minister as well as senior Turkish aid officials.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is scheduled to depart for Bangladesh and is expected to visit a refugee camp and oversee the delivery of aid.
He said Wednesday that Turkey wants a lasting solution to the plight of the Rohingya.
Cavusoglu was speaking in Baku, Azerbaijan, before travelling to Bangladesh where he's expected to visit a refugee camp for Rohingya and oversee the delivery of humanitarian aid.
He says Turkey will also deliver ambulances to Bangladesh to help it cope with the refugee flows, Cavusoglu said.
Cavusoglu said Turkey was determined not to "abandon" Rohingya and said his visit would help determine steps that can be taken to improve their conditions.
He says: "God willing, together with the international community, a lasting solution can be found."
Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said authorities in Myanmar agreed to let Turkish officials into Rakhine to provide food and clothing after Suu Kyi spoke to Erdogan on Tuesday.
Kalin said plans were under way to allow TIKA to distribute the aid in Rakhine state's Maungdaw and Buthi Taung areas in cooperation with Myanmar officials.
He said the initial aid will consist of rice, dried fish and clothing. Kalin said TIKA hoped to distribute it on Wednesday, adding that more aid, including medicine, will continue to be sent to the region at "regular intervals."
Erdogan has pressed world leaders to do more to help a population of roughly 1.1 million he says are facing genocide.
In a statement issued by her office, Suu Kyi said the government had "already started defending all the people in Rakhine in the best way possible" and warned against misinformation that is spreading on social media that could mar relations with other countries.
Modi sympathises with Myanmar
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that India shared Myanmar's concern about "extremist violence" in its Rakhine state.
Modi spoke after talks with Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a visit aimed at expanding commercial ties as part of an "Act East" policy, and pushing back against Chinese influence.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects accusations by refugees and rights groups that its armed forces have violated the rights of the mostly stateless Rohingya, saying the army and police are fighting "terrorists."
Suu Kyi told a joint news conference at the presidential palace in the capital, Naypyidaw, that Myanmar was grateful for India's stance on the attack on her country and they could work together to face the challenge.
During his visit, Modi offered prayers at Ananda Temple, a venerated Buddhist shrine in Myanmar's ancient city of Bagan.
Built in the early 12th century, Ananda Temple is the second largest temple in Bagan.
Protests in Indonesia
Thousands of Indonesians, led by hardline groups, held a rally near the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta on Wednesday to protest the treatment of Rohingya Muslims and demand the cutting of ties between the two countries.
Indonesia has the world's largest population of Muslims and there have been several anti-Myanmar protests in Jakarta and the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur over the treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar's roughly 1.1 million Rohingyas.
Some protesters chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), while others shouted slogans such as "Slaughter Myanmar" and "Burn the embassy" while some called for Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize to be revoked.
