ANKARA
Top EU officials visited Syrian refugee camps in south-central Turkey near the border with Syria Tuesday.
Syrian children welcomed the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogehrini, and the EU’s Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides at the Kilis refugee camp.
Mogherini said in a tweet that she saw “the war in their eyes.”
The EU officials also met with non-governmental organization representatives and humanitarian aid workers before visiting the camps, and later also held a press conference at the Gaziantep airport.
Mogehrini said that everyone they spoke with told them to do whatever they could to find a solution to the Syrian conflict. “This is the thing they want the most,” she said.
Stylianides said "nobody can deny that this is the biggest and most problematic refugee crisis that the world has faced in recent times.”
Mogherini and Stylianides are on an official visit to Turkey along with EU’s Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn.
On Monday, Mogherini had said the EU was finalizing a further package of €70 million ($86 million) to help Turkey cope with the refugee crisis.
Turkey is providing shelter to around 1.6 million Syrian refugees.
More than 190,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began between President Bashar al-Assad regime and opposition forces in early 2011, according to UN figures published in August.
Mogherini said that after Turkey, she will visit Lebanon, another country that is hosting more than a million Syrian refugees.
www.aa.com.tr/en
