The efforts to evacuate some 500 people from besieged Eastern Ghouta have been underway through negotiations with the Russian authorities, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday.
The president said during a press conference ahead of his three-day visit to the African countries of Sudan, Chad, and Tunisia that the humanitarian issue of the people in the besieged areas of Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus with nearly 400 thousand civilians, and the evacuation of about 500 people, including some 170 women and children, have been discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"We want to take them [from Eastern Ghouta] and provide them treatment and care in our country. Right now our chief of staff and the Russian counterparts are discussing the issues, and they will take the necessary steps," Erdoğan said, adding that the intelligence units will take the needed moves for successful evacuations.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned last week of a humanitarian crisis in Syria's besieged region due to intensified fighting, food shortages, and blocked medical evacuations and aid delivery.
"The humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta has reached a critical point. As so often in Syria over the last six years, ordinary people are once again trapped in a situation where life slowly becomes impossible and where goods and aid are severely limited," the ICRC's Middle East director, Robert Mardini, said in a statement last Monday.
Turkey's Red Crescent and Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD) have been active in providing humanitarian and medical aid to those in need in parts of Syria. Erdoğan said both the Red Crescent and AFAD will also take part in the process of evacuations in Eastern Ghouta.
Eastern Ghouta, which has been under siege by regime forces since December 2012, falls within a network of de-escalation zones - set up in Syria by the tripartite countries - in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden.
The eighth round of Astana peace talks held last week also focused on the humanitarian crisis in the region, with the participation of representatives from Russia, Turkey and Iran, as well as delegations from the moderate opposition and the regime. The Astana talks are seen as parallel to the Syrian peace talks in Geneva, not as an alternative.
The presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran met on Nov. 22 in Sochi to discuss progress made in the Astana peace talks and changes in de-escalation zones across Syria.
Erdoğan, Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani agreed to hold a Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi, which is expected to be held on Jan. 29-30.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said Sunday that 2018 would be an important year for the political solution in Syria.
Speaking at the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) ordinary district congress in the Ceylanpınar district of southeastern Şanlıurfa, a border town hosting a large population of Syrian refugees, Bozdağ said Syria it will be a "livable" place after the end of the conflict.
"Hopefully, 2018 will be an important year for finding a political solution to the problem in Syria, because the Sochi summit produced important results," the deputy prime minister stressed.
Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, sieges and starvation have been used as tools of war. Placing cities under siege and cutting off access to roads, food and medical supplies have left humanitarian aid providers unable to reach trapped populations of civilians prohibited from leaving the cities.