Turkey sets limit of 100,000 refugees

20 Aug 2012, 7:55 pm   -   Source: AAP

As thousands of people flee strife-torn Syria, Turkey's foreign minister has said his country can handle no more than 100,000 refugees.

Turkey cannot handle more than 100,000 Syrian refugees and instead proposes a United Nations buffer zone inside Syria to shelter them, the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said.

"If the number of refugees increases to 100,000, we will not be able to shelter them in Turkey," Davutoglu told the newspaper Hurriyet on Monday, adding Turkey would "have to welcome them in Syrian territory" under UN auspices.

The chief Turkish diplomat urged the United Nations to set up refugee camps "within the borders of Syria" in order to contain the number of Syrians fleeing the conflict in their country.

Davutoglu said Ankara would take part in a ministerial meeting of the UN Security Council on August 30 to study the humanitarian situation in Syria and neighbouring countries, hoping a decision will be taken there.

But Russia and China, which have used their veto three times on UN Security Council resolutions threatening sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, may not attend.

The exodus of refugees to Turkey has intensified in the past week as a result of a Syrian army offensive and fighting in the northern city of Aleppo, reaching a total of 70,000.

Turkish authorities began distributing aid to refugees on Syrian soil at the weekend.

The increasing flow of refugees has raised fears of a repeat of the 1991 Gulf War in 1991, when 500,000 Iraqi Kurds massed along the common border.

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