Turkish FM, first lady fly in to visit Rohingyas

Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu arrive in Dhaka early today to meet Rohingyas, who have fled to Bangladesh in the face of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar's Rakhine State.

Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque yesterday confirmed the visit of the two dignitaries from Turkey.

Both the dignitaries will reach Bangladesh in separate special chartered flights, said diplomatic sources in Dhaka.

"First Lady Emine Erdogan will travel to Bangladesh today where she will meet our Muslim brothers who fled oppression in Rakhine State," Deputy Prime Minister Hakan Cavusoglu told Turkish private broadcaster ATV yesterday.

Cavusoglu said the first lady would have “close contact” with Rohingyas who had escaped from Myanmar.

“Also our Turkish Coordination and Cooperation Agency (TİKA) head and our foreign minister, who is currently in Azerbaijan, will head for Bangladesh to meet, contact and provide aid opportunities there,” he said.

The UN yesterday estimated that nearly 1,46,000 Rohingyas crossed into Bangladesh since August 25 as tens of thousands more were internally displaced. 

The Turkish first lady and the foreign minister will fly to Cox's Bazar this morning to visit the tens of thousands of Rohingya population now living in makeshift camps there.

A delegation headed by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and TİKA President Serdar Çam will deliver the aid in person to Rohingyas who live in the camps in Cox's Bazar and surrounding areas, Turkish media reports.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam will accompany the Turkish dignitaries during their visit to Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar.

 After coming back from Cox's Bazar, the Turkish first lady and the foreign minister will call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and discuss the ongoing Rohingya crisis to find a lasting solution to this decades-long humanitarian crisis.

On August 31, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called his Bangladesh counterpart Abdul Hamid and talked about the current state of the Rohingya crisis. The Turkish president supported measures over the Rohingya issue taken by Bangladesh.

Erdogan expressed concern over the ongoing violence in the Rakhine State and assured the Bangladesh president of full support and cooperation to Dhaka.