15 June 2012Turkey has denied rumors on not permitting visits by journalists to the tent camps where thousands of Syrians are currently staying after fleeing clashes in their country.
Commenting on an article published by the New York Times which claims that "Turkey has made the camps harder to visit and has not granted permission for entry to reporters", a spokesperson for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said such allegations did not reflect the reality.
"Entries to the camps continue smoothly within the framework of the rules specified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkish Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) and other relevant institutions," spokesperson Selcuk Unal said Friday.
Unal said Turkish and foreign journalists entered the camps in accordance with the procedure, adding 254 entries by journalists had been recorded in the past year.
According to the data provided by AFAD, 29,441 Syrians are currently staying in a total of 10 camps in Turkey's south. |
