Turkey calls for end to violence in Myanmar

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim Friday called on international community to help stop violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

“International community should be more active and should abandon different [double] standards on this subject,” Yildirim told reporters in Istanbul on the first day of Eid Al-Adha.

Eid al-Adha, known as the feast of the sacrifice, recognizes Ibrahim’s submission to God in his willingness to sacrifice his son.

Turkey has been doing its part to send humanitarian aid to the suffering people and in order to put an end to violence, he said.

“We, one more time strongly condemn this massacre… ,” the prime minister said, adding “Those, who have done this [violence], will be accountable before the humanity sooner or later.”

The other ministers’ Eid messages also focused on the ongoing violence.

“The world and the United Nations have enough power to stop cruelty in Rakhine,” Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag told Anadolu Agency in the eastern Erzurum province.

Speaking to reporters in northwestern Kocaeli province, another Deputy Prime Minister Fikri Isik said that it is unacceptable that the world is “unfortunately blind and deaf to these persecutions”.

Violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine State on Aug. 25 when the country’s security forces launched an operation against Rohingya Muslim community. It triggered a fresh influx of refugees towards neighboring Bangladesh though the country sealed off its border for the refugees.

Media reports said Myanmar security forces used disproportionate force, displacing thousands of Rohingya villagers and destroying their homes with mortars and machine guns.

The violence in Rakhine state 'overshadowed' this year’s Eid al-Adha, Deputy Prime Minister Hakan Cavusoglu said in the northwestern Bursa province.

“We’ve seen that all the calls made by particularly our president and prime minister have been responded by the international community,” he said, adding that he hopes the crisis there would be resolved permanently.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he has spoken to his counterparts in many countries and representatives of international organizations over the crisis.

“I am also going to speak to Kofi Annan, special envoy of the United Nations, today,” he told reporters in southern province of Antalya. “We, as Turkey, will do whatever it needs in order to find a permanent solution in Rakhine.”

Speaking to reporters in southern Adana province, EU Minister Omer Celik expressed his solidarity with Rohingya Muslims.

“Our state and nation will continue to extend a helping hand to people suffering in every region of the world -- from Rakhine to Pakistan, from Syria to Somalia, from Serbia to Palestine,” Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said in his written message released for the occasion of the Eid.

The Rakhine state has seen simmering tension between its Buddhist and Muslim populations since communal violence broke out in 2012.

A security clampdown launched in October last year in Maungdaw, where Rohingya form the majority, led to a UN report on human rights violations by security forces that indicated crimes against humanity.

The UN documented mass gang-rape, killings -- including that of babies and young children -- brutal beatings and disappearances. Rohingya representatives have said approximately 400 people were slain during the operation.