U. N. urges Turkey to open its border
KILIS, Turkey — Turkey must open its doors to the thousands of Syrians who have massed at the border after fleeing violence, the United Nations demanded Tuesday, warning that hundreds of thousands of others in Syria’s largest city could be soon cut off from humanitarian aid amid blistering Syrian and Russian air strikes.
Turkey, already home to 2.5 million Syrian refugees, insists that it has an open- door policy toward Syrians escaping conflict but has still kept a key border crossing closed for days. Government officials say the country will provide assistance to the displaced Syrians within their own borders “as much as possible” and would allow them in “when necessary.”
The U. N. humanitarian office, OCHA ( Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), said 300,000 people could be cut off from aid if Syrian government and allied forces encircle the city of Aleppo and deprive those fleeing from their last way out. OCHA said local leaders believe up to 150,000 people could try to flee to nearby Afrin and the surrounding countryside.
Separately, U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman William Spindler asked Turkey to open the border to “all civilians who are fleeing danger and seeking international protection as they have done since the start of this crisis.”
Spindler also urged other nations to shoulder the refugee burden and to work to end the conflict.
“At the end of the day, the answer to this crisis is for the peace process to continue in Syria and for the conflict to be solved,” Spindler said.
On Tuesday, several aid trucks could be seen moving through Turkey’s Oncupinar border crossing, opposite the Bab al- Salameh gate in Syria, which remained shut to refugees for the fifth straight day.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said as many as 50,000 people had reached the border, trying to escape intense Russian bombings around Aleppo. He estimated Tuesday that up to 1 million more could flee if the onslaught continues.
Also Tuesday, a car bomb tore up a vegetable market and a police officers’ club in Damascus, the Syrian capital, Tuesday, according to a witness and regional news reports, striking an area that had been quiet for about two years under a local agreement between the Syrian government and insurgents, the New York Times reported.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blast, which the witness said had wounded dozens in Masaken Barzeh, a neighborhood on the northern edge of the city. It was the first attack in Damascus itself to be claimed by the Islamic State, although the group said it was behind an assault last month on the Sayeda Zeinab shrine, on the outskirts of the capital, that left dozens dead.
The war against President Bashar Assad’s government began in 2011. It has killed over 250,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes.