Karman visits Yemenis in Turkish hospitals

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakul Karman yesterday visited Yemenis receiving treatment in Turkish hospitals for injuries sustained during the uprising that swept the Arab nation last year.

Karman spoke to each of the 30 Yemeni patients under treatment at the Yenimahalle State Hospital in Ankara. Karman, who attended a conference on the Arab Spring at the weekend organized by Turkey’s main opposition, also visited Yemeni patients at the Istanbul Şişli Eftal Hospital. Speaking to reporters in Ankara yesterday, she expressed the Yemeni people’s gratitude for Turkey’s help and thanked the Turkish doctors. The Yemeni patients are lucky to be treated in Turkey because they would have died if they had stayed in Yemen with their injuries, she said. “Turkey’s support to the revolutionaries on their march towards freedom has left a deep impression on the Yemeni people’s hearts. The Yemeni people will not forget this friendship,” she said the previous day in Istanbul.

Karman, 33, was a leading figure in the Yemeni uprising in 2011. She is a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize and the first Arab woman to have won the award