Turkey calls on UN to be active for Rohingya

ISTANBUL

Turkey has called on the United Nations to play a more dynamic role against the ongoing violence against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. 

“The United Nations should be more active in this issue,” Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım told reporters on Sept. 1 after performing Eid al-Adha prayers at the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul. 

“It should impose more active measures and sanctions on this violence and the Myanmar administration that causes this massacre, instead of ineffectively sighing and condemning what is happening, evading responsibility,” Yıldırım said.  

“If it does not, confidence in the United Nations will be questioned,” he added. 

The prime minister also said the international community should stop “imposing double standards” on the issue. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also complained that humankind is “insensitive” to the violence against Rohingya Muslims, speaking to the media on the first day of Eid al-Adha. 

Hundreds of Rohinghya Muslims were killed, their villages were burned and 20,000 stranded people have crossed into Bangladesh by leaving their homes behind, Erdoğan said. 

“All of this is happening in front of the eyes of all humankind but unfortunately humankind is insensitive to them. I, as the rotating president of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, have held necessary talks with leaders of Islamic countries, as well as U.N. Secretary General [Antonio] Guterres.”  
    
He said the Muslim world is “saddened” while marking Eid al-Adha because of the violence in Myanmar, the ongoing conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and the fight against terrorism in Turkey.      

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Sept. 1 that Ankara has told Bangladeshi officials to open its gates to the refugees and Turkey would meet their expenses. 

The U.N. has documented mass gang-rape and killings - including of babies and young children - brutal beatings and disappearances targeting the Rohingya. 

Myanmar began operations against the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for alleged attacks on police outposts and a military base in the Maungdaw district of Rakhine state on Aug. 25. A press release from the office of military chief Min Aung Hlaing said on Sept. 1 that since Aug. 25, troops and fighters have engaged in more than 90 clashes.