Over 60 from Aleppo being treated in Turkish hospitals

ANKARA

Over 60 injured people from the war-battered city of Aleppo are now being treated at Turkish hospitals, the head of Turkey’s Red Crescent confirmed Friday.

On Twitter, Kerem Kinik said, “Over 60 injured people have been taken into Turkish hospitals from besieged Aleppo so far,” but did not give an exact number.

Turkey’s Health Minister Recep Akdag also told Turkey’s Kanal 24 television about measures taken at the Cilvegozu Border Gate with Syria, saying, “We set up three field hospitals. We have 13 ambulances with staff and three medical rescue teams there.

“Around 50 personnel are greeting the injured and taking immediate action. Everything is ready for the injured to be admitted to the nearby provinces of Hatay, Adana, and Mersin.”

Akdag added that over 800 beds across the country have been reserved for the injured in case of a sudden influx of Syrians.

He said a letter has been written urging the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) to get directly involved. “There is major health crisis. It’s not just the injured. Children aren’t being fed. No one is getting vaccinated. We’re seeing epidemics.”

Separately, Hasan Aydinlik, head of Turkish Emergency Services, told journalists in Hatay’s Reyhanli district, “Out of 55 injured brought to Turkey, one died due to injury, and one two-year-old baby and four people remain in critical condition.”

Syria has been locked in a vicious 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, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, put the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.