EU Minister Bağış visits refugee camp

KİLİS - Anatolia News Agency

European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva (2nd R) and Turkish European Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış (R) speak a press conference in Kilis. AFP photo

Those who watch Damascus’ atrocities from the outside are collaborators in the massacres, EU Minister Egemen Bağış said yesterday after visiting a refugee camp in the southeastern province of Kilis.

“Turkey is giving a civilization lecture to the world,” Bağış said while praising Turkey’s efforts to shelter Syrians fleeing from violence. “All Syrians call on us to stop [President Bashar] al-Assad’s violence. They did not even express their needs. Locals show solidarity by sharing their food with the Syrians. Turkey is giving one more civilization lecture to the world,” Bağış said. The EU minister visited the refugee camp in Kilis in southeastern Turkey along with EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva and Jean-Maurice Ripert, the head of the EU delegation in Ankara.

“We are making a call. These atrocities should stop. Those who will watch this from outside are collaborators,” Bağış said. The minister also thanked Georgieva for her efforts. “We opened a chapter which is not present in the EU [accession] chapters, and that is a solidarity chapter.”