'So-called modern world quickly forgot baby Aylan'

ANKARA

Turkish parliament speaker said on Wednesday "the so-called modern world quickly forgot baby Aylan, whose lifeless body washed ashore".

"Alleged modern world quickly forgot baby Aylan. You should not forget this misery," Mustafa Sentop told the 20th National Children Forum in the Turkish parliament.

There are millions of babies in the world who can share the same destiny with baby Aylan, Sentop said.

"We should take all necessary steps and precautions," he added.

He also noted the global peace and sustainable development cannot be achieved without respecting rights of children.

Aylan Kurdi, a 3-year-old Syrian toddler, while trying to cross to Europe, drowned off the coast of Turkey in 2015, and washed ashore a Turkish beach, spurring an international outcry.

Sentop said nearly 500,000 Syrian babies were born in Turkey since the beginning of civil war in Syria in 2011.

Turkey does not only provide accommodation for them but also offers education and health opportunities, Sentop said.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Hundreds of thousands of people have since been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN figures.