Turkish NGO circumcises 1,100 Syrian children over six days

HATAY

The Istanbul-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH) circumcised 1,100 children in Syria last week as part of a charity organization, an official for the foundation has said, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on May 22. 

“In our activities, we work to put smiles on the faces of children who were predominantly born inside the war in Syria. With this objective in mind, we have organized a circumcision ceremony for six days in the Syrian regions of Atma, Sarmada and Salkin,” said Selim Tosun, the press advisor for the İHH Syrian endeavor’s office in the southern province of Hatay.

“We also included children who had been in troubled regions in Idlib by transferring them to safe spots. We will continue to heal the wounds of Syrian children,” Tosun added.

The medical equipment for the circumcisions was reportedly provided by benefactors from the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri.

At least 15,000 children are among the more than 300,000 people who have been killed in Syria’s five-year war.
The İHH became better known in Turkey in May 2010 after it organized the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” trying to break the Israeli blockade on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.