Turkey’s First Lady coming to BD to see Rohingya plight

Turkey's First Lady Emine Erdogan will arrive in Dhaka early Thursday to meet Rohingya Muslims who fled persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, reports bdnews24.com.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Hakan Cavusoglu announced the visit in Ankara on Wednesday.

A foreign ministry official in Dhaka said State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam would receive her at the airport.

According to the schedule of Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, he would accompany the first lady to Cox’s Bazar camps on Thursday.

She is also expected to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday before leaving Dhaka.

More than 125, 000 Rohingya refugees have crossed into Bangladesh as tens of thousands more were internally displaced by the latest violence on Aug 25, according to the UN agencies.

The violence drew global condemnation. UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote “officially” to the president of the Security Council to express his concern. He also appreciated Bangladesh for allowing in Rohingya refugees.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also phoned his Bangladesh counterpart Md Abdul Hamid and supported measures taken by Bangladesh over the Rohingya refugee issue in the conversation last week.

He expressed concern over the ongoing violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

Cavusoglu, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, speaking in Ankara, said the first lady would have “close contact” with Rohingya Muslims who had escaped from Myanmar.

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

Cavusoglu noted that President Erdogan, who is also the term president of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), has been discussing the issue with several Muslim leaders to find a solution.

Myanmar’s government on Tuesday allowed the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency or TIKA to distribute 1,000 tons of aid to Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.

The permission from Myanmar came hours after Erdogan’s telephone call with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.