24 February 2018•Update: 24 February 2018
By Baris Gundogan
ANKARA
Turkey's presidential spokesman on Saturday called on the international community to make efforts to stop the massacre in Eastern Ghouta, a besieged Damascus suburb.
In a tweet, Ibrahim Kalin said: "The Assad regime is massacring [people] in Eastern Ghouta. Intensive initiatives of our president and related agencies are ongoing."
Speaking about the expected UN Security Council vote on a cease-fire in Syria, he said: "The entire world should say in unison: 'Stop this massacre'."
The Security Council postponed Friday's vote for a 30-day ceasefire across the war-torn country to Saturday to allow more time for negotiations.
The proposal calls for a ceasefire to distribute humanitarian aid and the medical evacuation of 700 people, particularly in Eastern Ghouta, which is under the siege of the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Home to 400,000 residents, Eastern Ghouta falls within a network of de-escalation zones -- endorsed by Turkey, Russia and Iran -- in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.
In the past eight months, Assad regime forces have intensified their siege, making it nearly impossible for food or medicine to get into the district, and leaving thousands of patients in need of treatment.
Syria has been locked in a devastating conflict since early 2011 when the regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.
According to UN officials, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict to date.
