Turkey’s first lady to visit Bangladesh

Following President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s discussion on Tuesday regarding the Rohingya crisis, Turkey has been permitted to send 1,000 tons of humanitarian aid to the region. Turkish aid agency TİKA will enter the region to deliver the aid.

“Following the discussion our president held with his Myanmarese counterpart, Myanmar has permitted TİKA as the first foreign aid agency to enter the region. Initially, 1,000 tons of aid will be sent,” Presidential aide İbrahim Kalın said.

Deputy Prime Minister Hakan Çavuşoğlu said that the aid will be delivered by air due to security concerns. He also noted that President Erdoğan’s wife Emine Erdoğan will visit Bangladesh on Wednesday.

“First lady Emine Erdoğan will also go to Bangladesh today. She will establish close contact with our Muslim brothers and sisters who escaped persecution in Rakhine,” Çavuşoğlu said.

Due to the ongoing concerns about instability and security in the region, the aid will be delivered to the region by military helicopters in cooperation with the Rakhine State Government.

A delegation headed by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and TİKA President Serdar Çam will deliver the aid in person to Rohingya Muslims who live in the camps in Bangladesh’s Cox Bazaar and surroundings.

The UN estimated on Wednesday that nearly 146,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh since Aug. 25 as tens of thousands more were internally displaced. The Myanmar administration has not allowed foreign organizations to enter the region, thus the death count is indeterminable.

Rakhine, situated in Myanmar’s west, has long been plagued by violence. In a crackdown last October, the UN documented mass gang rapes, killings – including infants and young children – brutal beatings and disappearances that constituted evidence of human rights violations by security forces that indicated crimes against humanity.