Turkey contributes over $6 billion to poor countries

Turkey, as the third biggest donor country, provided $ 6 .4 billion to developing countries such as Somalia, Syria, Bosnia - Herzegovina and Palestine to help their economic development in 2014.

Private and state funding , coordinated by Turkey's official overseas development agency (TİKA), increased by 47.3 percent in 2014 when compared with the previous year.

The amount of assistance, provided by the government posted an 8 . 6 percent increase, compared to the previous year, which totalled approximately $ 3.5 billion in 2014.

Turkey's official aid flow in 2002 was only $85 million. These official figures show that the country's humanitarian assistance has increased 42-fold in 12 years, considering the upsurge in the state-funded loans over $ 3 billion.

Development aid, collected by Turkish NGOs in 2014, hit nearly $ 369 million in total . Turkish NGOs are active in developing countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Financial aid provided to the least - developed countries, has climbed to $1.5 billion , increasing 7-fold from 2008 to 2014. Much of the aid ha s been spent for people living in Afghanistan, Sudan, Somali a and Yemen.

Nearly $ 800 million was spent on housing Syrian, Afghan and Sub-Saharan refugees in 2014. Of this amount, $ 683 million was spent for Syrian refugees in Turkey. Syria is still the highest-recip i ent of Turkish aid , as in the previous three years. Refugees from Afghanistan and Africa are among the groups, who have benefitted from aid the most.

The recipient of the most Turkish development aid has become the Middle East. The amount of finance, spent for the region totaled $ 2.5 billion after the housing cost s for Syrian refugees had been added to the total aid.

South and Central Asia have become the second largest-recipients , with $ 486 million , while Africa has received $ 383 million. With aid from Turkey at $ 113 million, the Balkans and Eastern Europe are far behind African counties.