Massive Syrian Kurds enter Turkey fleeing IS attack

Source:Xinhua Published: 2014-9-21 8:48:17

Some 45,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing IS attack on the border region entered Sanliurfa and Gaziantep provinces in southeastern Turkey on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Saturday.

Kurtulmus told reporters in Ankara "Turkey had been ready for an even worse-case scenario, a flow of up to 100,000 people," saying that "after Turkey opened the border gates, 45,000 Syrian Kurds entered through eight checkpoints, just across (the border) from Kobani. We accommodated them in the newly-built tents near the border."

Syrian Kurds have been massing since Thursday on the other side of the border as the IS militants seized dozens of villages in strong attacks as they close in on the strategic Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known to the Kurds as Kobani.

Turkey has accepted tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees fleeing IS assault on their villages on the other side of the Syrian border, said Kurtulmus.

Turkey opened the frontier to cope with a rush of Syrian civilians fearing an attack on the Syrian border town of Ain al- Arab on Friday. Turkish authorities once refused the Syrians fleeing from clashes between IS militants and Kurdish fighters to enter into the country as it worried its disability to shelter more refugees from Syrian conflict.

As of August, Turkey has sheltered about 1.4 million refugees from the Syrian conflict which began in 2011. A total of 220,000 of them were accommodated in 24 refugee camps set up in Turkey's 10 provinces.

Posted in: Mid-East

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