KUWAIT CITY
Turkey is currently hosting nearly 1.7 million Syrian refugees, Turkish Development Minister Cevdet Yilmaz said Tuesday.
"Turkey has been the hardest-hit by the Syrian crisis," Yilmaz told the third International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria, held in Kuwait City on Tuesday.
He said Turkey was meeting the needs of Syrian refugees on its territory.
"A political solution is the only way to end the humanitarian suffering of the Syrian people, according to the Geneva statement," he said.
Yilmaz estimated that nearly 300,000 Syrians had been killed since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011.
"Turkey has opened its doors to all Syrians who fled their country and we have mobilized all resources for them," he said.
"As of March 2015, more than seven million Syrians will benefit from the Turkish welfare system," he said.
Earlier Tuesday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the donors' conference in Kuwait had raised nearly $3.8 billion to aid the Syrian people.
The four-year-old Syria conflict has created an acute refugee crisis, with as many as 3.8 million Syrian refugees currently registered in neighboring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
