SANLIURFA, Turkey
Turkey has not forgotten its neighbors in the Syrian town of Kobani and continues to provide humanitarian assistance to people fleeing clashes between the warring sides, a district governor has said.
A temporary accommodation center has been established in the Suruc district of Turkey's southeastern Sanliurfa province that can host up to 35,000 people.
Suruc District Governor Abdullah Ciftci told Anadolu Agency that Turkey was taking good care of the people of Kobani by providing them with aid and hosting them as refugees.
"We did not forget our neighbors in Kobani after the recent bomb attacks and delivered 10 trucks of humanitarian aid from different parts of Turkey," Ciftci said.
"We will continue to stand by our neighbors and share their pain at all costs," he added.
Thousands of people in Kobani have been affected in the almost nine months of fierce clashes between Daesh and pro-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) affiliated fighters in and around the town.
According to new figures released by the Turkish Prime Ministry’s press section on Saturday, Turkey is hosting 194,000 civilians displaced from Kobani alone.
Turkey has sent nearly 2,000 vehicles with humanitarian aid to the people in Kobani since September 19, 2014.
The deadly bomb attack in Kobani last Thursday left nearly two dozens of people killed and at least 130 others wounded, sparking a new bout of fighting between Kurdish forces and Daesh after the Kurdish-majority town was overrun by the terrorist group last September.
The Turkish Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), the Turkish Red Crescent and many other public institutions are also involved in the efforts to welcome Syrian refugees.
Turkey shares an estimated 900-kilometer long border with Syria, with about 13 border crossings. Some on the Syrian side are now under Daesh’s control, including Tal Abyad in the Raqqa province.
More than 1.7 million registered Syrian refugees were taken in by Turkey since the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011, according to the UNHCR.
The Syrian-Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG), the PYD's military wing, has been accused in the past of attempting to change the region’s demographic make-up. Turkey has designated PYD as a terror organization.
