Davutoğlu reaches out to Rohingya Muslims

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar - Anatolia News Agency

Myanmar President Thein Sein (L) and Davutoğlu shake hands before meeting. AA photo

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has arrived in Myanmar for a series of formal talks and to oversee the distribution of Turkish humanitarian aid to the displaced Rohingya Muslims.

Myanmar President Thein Sein expressed gratitude for Turkey’s opening of an embassy in his country prior to meeting with Davutoğlu. Sein said Myanmar was willing to open an embassy in Ankara. Davutoğlu also met with his counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin. Davutoğlu was set to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He paid a visit to the graves of Turkish soldiers who were taken hostage by the British and taken to Myanmar during World War I. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s wife, Emine Erdoğan, and his daughter, Sümeyye Erdoğan, also accompanied Davutoğlu. “In an era when Buddhist doctrines are taken as an example, it is horrible what the [Buddhist] clerics did. How would the international community respond if this massacre had been perpetrated by Muslims?” Emine Erdoğan said. At least 77 people were killed in the unrest between Rohingyas and Buddhists.