Nearly 2,500 Syrian babies born in camps: Turkish FM

ANKARA

In this photo provided by Turkish Prime Minister's Press Service, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his wife Emine Erdogan hold newly born babies during a visit to a Syrian refugee camp in Sanliurfa, Turkey, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Erdogan repeated a call on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. (AP Photo/Kayhan Ozer)

Nearly 2,500 babies were born in 17 camps hosting Syrians who fled from the violence in the neighboring country, while the number of Syrians at these camps numbers over 185,000, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Feb. 25.

“Turkey itself is doing its utmost to shoulder a large part of the humanitarian catastrophe. The figures I will share now are striking to show the level of human rights violations,” Davutoğlu said in a speech delivered at the High-Level Panel during the 22nd regular session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva.

According to figures provided by the minister, over 100,000 Syrians are now living in various cities in Turkey; 26,315 students are receiving education from 1,224 teachers in 372 classrooms in the camps; 24,370 Syrians received technical training; 727,640 patients were treated; 17,670 patients are still in Turkish hospitals and 10,450 medical operations were conducted.

“More importantly, 2,490 babies were born in those camps. Those children could have been born or educated in their country, in peace. But their basic rights have been violated. For us, it is a challenging responsibility with great costs. Turkey has so far spent more than 600 million U.S. dollars. But no matter how difficult the challenge is, we will continue our open-door policy and stand by our Syrian brothers and sisters,” Davutoğlu said.