Turkey: Up to 40,000 People Newly Settled at Camps
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Up to 40,000 refugees have settled in camps on the Turkish border inside Syria in the latest wave of migration, a Turkish deputy prime minister said on Friday.
A diplomatic initiative with Russia and Syria is needed to prevent further waves of migration that would also impact Europe, Yalcin Akdogan told reporters near the border at Oncupinar, in comments broadcast live by TRT television.
"In the last week there has been a new wave of migration, notably because of the Russian bombardment and 35,000 to 40,000 people have flowed to the Turkish border," he said, Reuters reported.
Earlier on Friday the United States, Russia and more than a dozen other nations reached agreement in Munich to cease hostilities in Syria and provide humanitarian aid. The deal is aimed at eventually paving the way for a political transition in Turkey's war-ravaged neighbor.
Turkey, which already hosts 2.6 million Syrian refugees, has tried to keep the latest wave on the Syrian side of the border, in part to pressure Russia to cease its air support for Syrian government forces near the city of Aleppo.
NATO member Turkey is one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most vehement critics and an ardent supporter of opposition forces. Ankara's relations with Moscow have been very strained since the Turkish air force downed a Russian jet along the Turkish border in November.
