Turkey calls for international action for Rohingya Muslims

ANKARA

AP photo

Ankara has demanded the international community take immediate action to help Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, with top officials voicing their concern over the suffering of the minority community.

“We strongly condemn those attacks and oppression against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The attack targeting Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and civilians on Aug. 25 is really unacceptable,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said at a press conference with his Maldivian counterpart Mohammed Asim on Aug. 29.

“We have been following the process from the very beginning, not just watching it. We are in contact with the whole world. Our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım are following the process in person,” Çavuşoğlu added, highlighting the need to find a “well-established” solution.

“Previously there were also serious attacks against Rohingya Muslims. The problem is systematic. Our Rohingyan brothers have been systematically under oppression and have been deported,” he said.

“We must find an essential solution. It cannot continue this way. This oppression and inhumane treatment cannot continue like this. The whole world should be sensitive,” he added. 

Çavuşoğlu said Ankara was engaging in diplomatic efforts with the U.N., the U.S., and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. 

“All these international organizations should take concrete steps,” he urged. 

Separately, EU Minister Ömer Çelik called on the international community to take action.

“It is not acceptable that international organizations are just standing by and watching the massacres in the northern Rakhine state of Myanmar. The massacres are just being watched, as if international law and institutions do not exist. This crime against humanity has turned into genocide,” Çelik tweeted on Aug. 29.

“International organizations should not be just standing by and watching the massacres, described as a slow-burning genocide. The U.N. and EU institutions should act immediately to stop this massacre by resorting to swift and effective means,” he added.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also strongly condemned the violence in Myanmar late on Aug. 28.

Speaking on state-run broadcaster TRT Haber, Erdoğan accused the world of being “blind and deaf” to the oppression of the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, vowing that Ankara would raise the issue at all international organizations.

“This [violence in Myanmar] will be on our agenda at the General Assembly of the United Nations [on Sept. 19],” he said.