20th March, 2018
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday sharply criticised the International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday for remarks made by the humanitarian organisation’s president regarding Turkish operations in the Kurdish Afrin region of Syria.
Peter Maurer, the president of the neutral Geneva-based ICRC, said on Monday that “the credibility of a Turkish Red Crescent working in Afrin with the Kurdish population is close to zero.”
According to a statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy commented that this was far from the truth and unacceptable.
“We deplore this statement by the president of the ICRC that is directed at the Red Crescent of a country that is home to hundreds of thousands of Syrian Kurds within its borders,’’ Aksoy said.
The UN has issued sharp warnings on Afrin about the humanitarian situation in Syria.
Kurdish officials say hundreds of thousands have fled and now facing desperate conditions.
The U.S. State Department also released a statement criticising the Turkish military operation in Afrin.
“It appears the majority of the population of the city, which is predominantly Kurdish, evacuated under threat of attack from Turkish military forces and Turkish backed opposition forces.
“We are also concerned over reports of looting inside the city of Afrin,’’ the statement said.
Turkey also slammed Washington, saying the U.S. authorities still cannot, or unfortunately do not want to, comprehend the reason, purpose and nature of Operation Olive Branch, using the code name of the Afrin operation.
Turkey’s governmental aid agency said it has begun to distribute food and other goods to the population that remains in Afrin.