UN: Turkey could set up major camps for Aleppo people

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA

Turkey could set up new major camps for people fleeing from eastern Aleppo to Idlib, the U.N. senior advisor, Jan Egeland said Thursday.

"We are also in contact with Turkey for major new camps that could be set up. Hundreds of thousands of people could come to Idlib, that is our planning," Egeland said in a press conference in Geneva on Thursday about the people being evacuated from eastern Aleppo.

According to an agreement between the Assad regime and Syrian opposition groups, civilians evacuated from eastern Aleppo will continue to head towards Idlib, which is located near the border with Turkey.

Egeland said "We have tried to assist east Aleppo for several months now. We have had five major initiatives to bring relief to the besieged part of east Aleppo and to evacuate wounded and civilians from east Aleppo. They have all failed. We do hope that today we see the start of a last and successful attempt of evacuations of that troubled city."

Noting that UN was invited to monitor, assist the evacuation that will take place from the remaining enclave that is controlled by armed opposition groups, Egeland said "It is a three-pronged evacuation...it is medical evacuation of wounded and sick, it is an evacuation of vulnerable civilians and it is an evacuation of fighters."

"We stand ready to accompany those who are being evacuated, not only from east Aleppo but all the way to Idlib, that is controlled by armed opposition groups, and that will be the destination of most of the people evacuated. We stand also ready to care for them all the way to Turkey and into Turkey if they chose that to be their final destination."

- 4,000 years old Aleppo torn down in four years

"We all feel strongly that the history of Aleppo through this war will be a black chapter in the history of international relations. It took 4,000 years to build Aleppo, hundreds of generations, yet one generation managed to tear it down in four years," Egeland said.

Egeland said "I would say that the most painful experience of all of these weeks and months of work is that we haven’t been able to be present when the Syrian civilians have needed us the most. There are 700,000 people in 15 besieged areas beyond east Aleppo and they are a symbol of this lack of presence, lack of protection."

Noting that all of the parties on the ground are guilty of blocking access for international humanitarian workers, Egeland said "I cannot recall a war where this has been such an acute problem in the last generation."

Indicating that 50,000 people in Aleppo fled from the war zone, Egeland said "There are reports of people detained, many people having their IDs taken from them. There are people arrested but there are also very many people who are registered in the ordinary fashion who are in these two IDP (internally displaced persons) hubs where we received them and where they get ordinary assistance."

Violence escalated in the city Monday when Syrian regime forces advanced into opposition-held parts of eastern Aleppo following a five-month siege and persistent aerial bombardment. The Russian-backed regime had been trying to reestablish control over parts of Aleppo captured four years ago by armed opposition groups.

Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since early 2011 when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests – which had erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings – with unexpected ferocity. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed by the conflict and millions more displaced.