Turkish Red Crescent hails UN aid campaign for Idlib

ANKARA- Anadolu Agency

Turkish Red Crescent on June 28 lauded the aid efforts of the United Nations in the Idlib region, the northwest of civil war-torn Syria.

On June 27, 11 chiefs of global humanitarian organizations leaded to launch a worldwide campaign in solidarity with civilians in northwestern Syria- with the slogan: The World Is Watching.

“We find this decision of the U.N. pleasing in terms of delivering aid to more people in need,” Kerem Kınık, head of the organization, said in a statement.

On June 28, some 27 trucks- carrying U.N. aid- passed Turkey’s Cilvegözü border gate in the southern Hatay province, bordering Syria.

The aid will be distributed to those in need in Idlib and its rural parts.

Kınık also called for an end to the Syrian civil war claiming civilian lives and displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

He said three million people are stuck in Idlib and around, including one million children.

“Clearly war crimes are committed there,” Kınık said.

He stressed that humanitarian organizations, especially the Red Crescent, have difficulty in reaching out to civilians due to the military activities.

“However, first of all, the right to life of these people and their right to attain humanitarian aid must be protected,” he added.

Since the beginning of the crisis, the Red Crescent, which has been carrying on humanitarian aid to Syria continuously, provides shelter, nutritionand  health support to the camps in Syria and provides uninterrupted support to the orphanages where tens of thousands of orphan children and women who have lost their husbands.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

According to the U.N. on June 27, more than 230 civilians have lost their lives, more than 330,000 have fled in just six weeks, and three million more remain at risk.

Turkey and Russia agreed last September to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression would be expressly prohibited.

The regime, however, has consistently broken the terms of the ceasefire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.