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Turkish president criticizes international community for not taking more refugees

Xinhua, June 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey has been sheltering much more refugees than the whole Europe, criticizing the latter for not taking more refugees, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported on Sunday.

"Now, in our country, there are two million refugees. In Europe as a whole, this figure is not even 200,000," Erdogan made the remarks at an iftar program in Mardin province of southeastern Turkey late Saturday.

"No country can attain the welfare and peace it desires by closing itself to the outer world," Erdogan said.

There are 25 camps hosting Syrians in Turkey, 16 of which are container cities and the remaining nine consist of tents.

The Turkish president thanked the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres and Hollywood star and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie for their visit to the refugees in Turkey.

They arrived in Turkey late Friday on a private plane and on Saturday, they visited Syrian and Iraqi refugees, who fled clashes in their countries, in temporary protection centers in the Midyat district of Mardin.

According to government figures, Turkey has spent more than 6 billion U.S. dollars so far for refugees, while the international community's assistance has amounted to 300 million dollars only.

The U.N. announced in a report on Thursday that the global refugee count has hit 60 million people. Endi