16 January 2017•Update: 16 January 2017
By Sefa Sahin
ANKARA
The Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD) donated €250,000 for civilians who fled Syria's war-torn Aleppo city.
Turkish people living in Europe, through the UETD, handed over a €250,000 check to Turkish Red Crescent as part of the aid campaign which aims to meet the needs of the long-suffering civilians of Aleppo.
The handover ceremony took place in the agency’s office in Ankara on Monday.
The campaign launched last month has drawn a large amount of attention of people and non-governmental organizations as well as aid agencies at home and abroad since then, the relief agency said on its website.
Deputy chair of Turkish Red Crescent Naci Yorulmaz said, “Turkey proved itself once again as the conscience of the world. There are many relief funds across the world for the Syrians, but Turkey with its aid agencies, notably Turkish Red Crescent, achieved spectacular results."
Turkey hosts some 3 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world. The country has spent around $25 billion helping and sheltering refugees since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.
Turkey and Russia also recently brokered a nationwide cease-fire for Syria, and Turkey has evacuated hundreds of trapped civilians from besieged eastern Aleppo and given wounded civilians treatment in Turkish hospitals.
Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests – which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings – with unexpected ferocity.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.
*Ahmet Sait Akcay contributed to the report from Ankara
