ANKARA
"Those states who calculate for days whether to take or not ten refugees are advising Turkey," said Turkish deputy prime minister Tuesday.
As Western countries have criticized Turkey over its policy with regards to Kobani -- a Syrian city near the Turkish border, which remains besieged by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, militants since September -- Yalcin Akdogan pointed out Turkey's humanitarian track record.
"We opened our gates and our hearts to 1.5 million of Syrian refugees," said Akdogan, speaking in Antalya, in western Turkey. "We have spent nearly $5 billion for Syrian refugees."
Ankara has namely opened its borders to nearly 180,000 Syrian Kurds from Kobani and has also facilitated the passage of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces through Turkey, in order for them to join fight against ISIL.
Akdogan said that Turkey was sending aid across the world without waiting for anything in exchange.
"Turkey is helping those in need without questioning their ethnicity or religion," Akdogan said.
"Development Initiatives," a London-based independent organization which focuses on the analysis and use of data for the elimination of poverty, established Turkey as the third country in the world -- after Luxembourg and Sweden -- providing the most humanitarian aid in proportion to its national income, in 2013.
“We do not have oil wells, but we are a powerful country with a big heart," Akdogan said.
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