Tayyip Erdogan Addresses UNGA

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged members of the UN General Assembly to work toward a swift political solution to the Syrian crisis. International actors, including the EU, are “expected to rise to the occasion” and meet their responsibilities by contributing more in assistance, financial and otherwise, Erdoğan told the 71st United Nations General Assembly Council. In his speech at a leader’s summit on refugees on the sidelines of UN General Assembly, Erdoğan said turkey had successfully fulfilled its commitment to the EU under the refugee deal inked in March. The Turkish leader said, “As a response to this, the promises made by the EU to turkey were unfortunately not been kept,” The deal aimed to discourage irregular migration through the Aegean Sea by taking stricter measures against human traffickers and improving conditions for Syrian refugees in turkey. The deal included a 6 billion euro aid package for Turkey to care for millions of refugees it is hosting. Turkey hosts the maximum number of refugees worldwide, Erdoğan said, sharing turkey’s plans about what to do for refugees in future. The number of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in turkey has reached 2.7 million. According to Erdoğan, turkey has allocated 25 billion dollars in total, 12 billion dollars from the government’s budget, while the rest came from non-governmental organizations and municipalities in the country. He said, the country has received only 525 million dollars from the international community. He called on the world to share the burden and contribute to the education of the victims of the Syrian civil war.