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Turkey shelters more refugees than any other country: PM

Xinhua, October 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Turkey host more refugees than any other countries in the world, but its doors will remain open, Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish prime minister, told the UN General Assembly here Wednesday.

"Turkey now shelters the largest number of refugees in the world -- and our doors will remain open," Davutoglu said at the annual high-level debate of the UN General Assembly, which opened here Monday.

Turkey is one of Syria's neighboring countries to receive a massive influx of Syrian refugees in the wake of the Syrian conflict, which broke out in March 2011.

Like many other heads of state and government addressing the 193-member General Assembly, Davutoglu recalled Aylan Kurdi -- the three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned on the shores of Turkey earlier this year -- in his speech.

"The tragic story of the three-year-old Aylan should serve as a reminder of what the UN should stand for," said Davutoglu. "It was just earlier this month, Aylan's tiny, lifeless body washed ashore, after their boat capsized in the Aegean Sea."

Davutoglu added that Aylan's family was trying to escape indiscriminate barrel bombs in Syria and were hoping to find an imagined land of hope, anywhere in Europe.

"The Turkish gendarmerie officer who found Aylan told, rather than an officer on duty, he felt like the little boy's father, holding helplessly his beloved one," he said.

"Indeed, Aylan was our baby, each one of us and of all humanity. And the moment we found him, washed lifeless ashore, we all were lost in the misery of our own conscience," he added.

Davutoglu said that Turkey has now provided protection to more than 2 million Syrians and 200,000 Iraqis. He added that his country has invested almost 8 billion dollars to help the refugees, but had received international support of only 417 million dollars.

"Our generation has witnessed the highest number of refugees and internally displayed persons since the Second World War," the prime minister added. Enditem