Turkey, Qatar launch joint aid campaign for Syrians

By Tuba Sahin

ISTANBUL

Ankara and Doha have launched a joint aid campaign for Syrian refugees in Turkey on Monday.

The aid organization Turkish Red Crescent and Qatar Charity, a Doha-based NGO inked a deal in Istanbul for $10 million to aid refugees.

According to the agreement, the Red Crescent and the Qatar Charity will collaborate extensively for a period of five years.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, the head of the Turkish Red Crescent Kerem Kinik said the main purpose of the deal was to deliver more services to Syrian refugees in Turkey.

“It will be an opportunity in order to help almost 3 million Syrians hosted by Turkey and nearly 6.5 million displaced people in Syria. Thanks to this collaboration, $10 million will be allocated to projects [the Turkish Red Crescent] in the field of nutrition, accommodation, education and health services,” he said.

He added that Qatar Charity and the Red Crescent would continue to collaborate on other issues.

“We have a common area of interest such as Palestine, Iraq and Somalia,” he added. “This collaboration is just a beginning.”

More than 8 million Syrians have benefited from the projects the charity implemented since the outbreak of the war, said Yusuf bin Ahmed al-Kuwari, the CEO of Qatar Charity, citing that they planned to reach more after opening a regional office in Ankara in 2016.

Qatar Charity was established in 1992. It operates charitable activities in the fields of health, education, construction, sanitation, water, emergency aid and donations.

Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world, and so far has spent more than $20-25 billion for their care, according to Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which had erupted as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.