Turkish PM in Cox’s Bazar to meet Rohingyas

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim is visiting Cox's Bazar to meet displaced Rohingyas and see the situation on the ground.

A special flight, carrying the Turkish PM, reached Cox's Bazar Airport around 10:50am . Later, he started for the Balukhali camp.

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali is accompanying him.

Yildirim wants to get an idea what else the Turkish government can do for Rohingyas.

The Turkish prime minister is set to leave here for home straight from Cox's Bazar around 2:00pm.

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Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali will see him off at Cox's Bazar airport.

The Turkish prime minister highly appreciated Sheikh Hasina's diplomacy over Rohingya issue and Bangladesh's support to the displaced people.

He hoped that the bilateral document, signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar on November 23, will make Rohingyas' return to their home possible soon.

The Turkish premier urged the international community to enhance their support for Rohingyas in Bangladesh and finding a political solution to the crisis looking at it as a humanitarian crisis instead of seeing it as an issue of Bangladesh.

Some 655,000 Rohingyas have crossed from Myanmar into Bangladesh since August 25.

On September 7, Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan visited Rohingya camp and said what is happening in Myanmar's Rakhine state is "tantamount to genocide" and solution to Rohingya crisis lies in Myanmar only.

She also affirmed that the government of Turkey will stand beside the Rohingyas who have fled to Bangladesh in the face of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar's Rakhine.