Myanmar's Rohingya crisis cannot be resolved through violence: Turkey
Displaced Rakhine ethnic people from Maungdaw township arrive to the Sittwe port, Sittwe, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, 26 August 2017. (EPA Photo)


Turkey on Saturday said the situation in western Myanmar's Rakhine state cannot be solved through violence as it condemned Friday's deadly attacks on border posts which left at least 89 people killed.

In a written statement, the Turkish foreign ministry voiced concern over the attacks and urged the Myanmar government to avoid inflaming the tensions that could lead to another humanitarian crisis.

The statement said it was saddening that the attacks happened at a time the report of the Kofi Annan-led Rakhine Advisory Commission was released.

In a 63-page report presented to the government Wednesday, Annan's commission called for an end to the restrictions on movement and citizenship for the 1.2 million Rohingya minority in Rakhine.

"We hope that the measures to be implemented after the attacks would not harm the civil population and not lead to a situation similar to the humanitarian crisis which occurred after the attacks in the region in the last months of 2016," the statement said.

The Rohingya have long faced severe discrimination and were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people — predominantly Rohingya — from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain.

According to the United Nations, more than 80,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since last October's clashes.

Friday's attacks on at least 30 posts on the Bangladesh frontier in Maungdaw district were claimed by a group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

A soldier, 10 police officers, an immigration official and 77 militants were killed in the attacks and 15 people were wounded, the Office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said in a statement. Two militants were captured.