Iran To Help Turkey Resolve War Regionsˈ Women, Childrenˈs Problems

New York, March 7, IRNA – Turkish Women and Family Affairs Minister Fatemeh Shahin said here Wednesday evening Iran has announced readiness to cooperate with Turkey in solving problems with which women and children are entangled in war-affected regions. Minister Shahin who was speaking at the New York UN Headquarters to attend the UN Womenˈs Conference added in an interview with a number of Turkish reporters accompanying her in the visit, ˈI had a meeting with Ms. Maryam Mojtahedzadh, the Islamic Republic of Iran Presidentˈs Consultant in Womenˈs Affairs, and it was in that meeting that the initial exchange of ideas on the critical conditions of the women and children in war-affected regions in Turkey, namely the Syrian refugees in Turkey took place.ˈ Minister Shahin said, ˈIran and Turkey are very friendly neighbors with shared historic and cultural backgrounds and in my meeting with this representative of Iran she announced Iranˈs readiness for cooperation in this very humanitarian case, which I believe is worth appreciation.ˈ Voicing Turkeyˈs agreement with Iranˈs old demand on need for drastic changes in the structure of the United Nations she emphasized, ˈThe United Nations and the European Union are structures meant to serve the international peace and stability, but they are obviously not performing their meant and expected responsibilities.ˈ Since the beginning of the uprising in Syria, streams of refugees have poured into Turkey. They now number well over 100,000 in camps set up by the Turks and partial contributions of the UN, creating a financial crunch for Turkey. Inside the camps, the emotional and physical toll from the refugees’ exposure to the fighting and their flight is obvious. With no end in sight, the refugees ponder their fate. But the crisis has also stirred anxiety among Turks, who fret about the presence of so many Syrians in their country, and who worry that Turkey could be dragged into a war with its neighbor. Refugees of the Syrian civil war or Syrian refugees are Syrian nationals, who have fled Syria with the escalation of the Syrian civil war. To escape the violence, tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled the country to neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. In August 2012, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that the number of registered Syrian refugees had reached over 200,000, exceeding the UNHCR estimate of 185,000 for the entire year. Also according to the United Nations, 6 million people inside Syria needed help and about 4 million Syrians were internally displaced because of the Syrian civil war./end