Rakhine, (IINA) – Turkey’s minister of foreign affairs has been welcomed in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where he pledged Turkey’s support for its Muslim population before hosting an iftar dinner on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reported.
After traveling from capital Naypyitaw to the Rakhine capital of Sittwe, Mevlut Cavusoglu listened to the problems faced by those who lived there, and talked reconciliation late Monday.
Since 2012, Rakhine — home to more than one million Rohingya Muslims (described by the United Nations as the world’s most persecuted minority group) — has been troubled by communal violence, with Rohingya and other ethnicities and religious groups left reliant on aid in internally displaced person camps.
“We will not leave you on your own”, Cavusoglu promised, adding that Turkey — in the form of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) — would carry out new projects in Sittwe including “schools, clinics, and infrastructure”.
“We will continue to support morally and financially”, he said. “Turkey supports the people here at all times, whether it is humanitarian or protecting rights. They know this, feel this and live this”.
Cavusoglu then attended an Iftar meal with 4,000 Rohingya in Sittwe’s Muslim quarter of Aung Mingalar.
On their part, local residents said that their streets were dependent on the aid provided by Turkey, expressing gratitude toward the state and the Turkish people.