Turkey ranks 3rd most generous donor country

Turan Yılmaz ANKARA

Syrian Kurds wait in the southeastern town of Suruç in the Şanlıurfa province after crossing the border between Syria and Turkey on Oct 1. AFP Photo

Turkey has become the third most generous country in the world with its $1.6 billion in humanitarian aid in 2014, after the United States and the United Kingdom, which gave $4.7 and $1.8 billion in humanitarian aid respectively.

Turkey even surpassed Japan and Germany, which gave $1.1 billion and $949 million respectively in aid in the same year, according to the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report.

The humanitarian assistance given by Turkey corresponds to 0.21 percent of its gross national income (GNI), which ranks Turkey top of the list of donors. The same figure is 0.03 percent for the U.S. and 0.07 percent for the U.K.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş told daily Hürriyet in an interview that Turkey was "ethnic, religious and sect blind" when providing assistance to the people in need.

“We are currently hosting around 30,000 Yazidis in Turkey. We have never asked and we will never questions about their ethnicities, identities or religions. We’ll do our best for those who seek assistance. Turkey will coordinate all of its aid,” Kurtulmuş said.

Turkey’s humanitarian agency’s aid to Syrian refugees was 2.3 billion Turkish Liras in 2013, he added.

The report indicates that Turkey’s humanitarian assistance has shown an increase of $591 million in the period of 2012 and 2013 and a great portion of it has been spent for Syrians. The number of Syrians fleeing violence is approximately 2.8 million and they are being hosted in neighboring countries Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon.