ANKARA (AA) - Following the remarks of UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres as Syrian refugee crisis had been the worst tragedy since the genocide in Rwanda, the "refugee" issue became a topic of discussion again.
The refugee issue contains civil war, clashes, starvation and drought, and people in Palestine, Rwanda, Myanmar, Chechnya, Syria and many other regions struggle for their life in neighboring countries, while longing for the homeland.
The genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina took their place in history. Palestinians have been living with the desire of homeland for 65 years. In Syria, people are still being killed in the civil war for two years.
-Palestinians have been refugees for 65 years-
Due to struggle and fight between Israel and the Arab countries since 1948, millions of Palestinians were forced to leave their homes. As of the end of 2003, 6 million of the Palestinians are living as refugees, while 5 million of them are living in the neighbooring Arab countries and one million in Israel.
There are 2.8 million Palestinians in Jordan, 436,000 in Syria , 415,000 in Lebanon and 62,000 in Egypt. The number of Palestinian refugees in the United States is about 236,000.
-Rwanda-
Hutu government, which came into rule after Rwanda gained independence in 1962, started to put pressure on Tutsi people seeing them as the extension of former rule. Tutsis began armed struggle in 1990. The war ended with a cease-fire in 1992, however, when president's plane crashed in 1994, 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed by paramilitary forces within 100 days. The massacre ended when Hutu government were overthrew by a Tutsi-backed front. Then, hundreds of thousands of Hutu took refugee in Congo Republic.
-The Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar-
Myanmar has been under the rule of military control since 1988. The country is known with human rights violations. There has been ethnical and religious clashes in teh country for the past 20 years. Nearly one million refugees have been living in other countries following the attacks on Muslims in June 2012. There are 500,000 Rohingya Muslims in Saudi Arabia, 200,000 in Pakistan, 15,00 in different countries of Europe, and 10,000 in Malaysia. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), 200,000-300,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees are living in Bangladesh and 111,000 in camps along Thailand-Myanmar border.
-Syrian refugees-
Hundreds of thousands of people had to leave their homes due to clashes started between the Assad regime and the opponents on March 2011 in Syria. Assad regime's heavy bombardment and clash milieu in the country forced more than 2 million Syrians to leave Syria and take refugee Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.
On the third year of the civil war in Syria, at least 70,000 people lost their lives.
