Reports that gates were opened close to areas controlled by the PKK terrorist group’s Syrian wing, the YPG, following an earthquake are false, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Monday.
Speaking at a joint news conference with his Libyan counterpart Najla al-Mangoush in the capital Ankara, Çavuşoğlu said, “It is not the case that gates in places controlled by the PKK/YPG are open, and the information that a large number of refugees are coming from Syria is also not true.”
"In these difficult days we are going through, in these days when we need solidarity and cooperation the most, we are upset for wasting our energy in responding to such disinformation circulated on social media and various channels," he added.
Following the earthquake, disinformation spread on social media with claims that Türkiye would face another refugee wave.
Devastating earthquakes jolted southern Türkiye and Syria on Monday. The international response to rush to Türkiye's aid was huge; however, this was not the case for its war-torn neighbor, Syria.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaraş province, affected over 13 million people across 10 provinces, including Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa.
The first U.N. relief delivery arrived in northwestern Syria on Thursday, as trucks passed from Türkiye through the sole open border crossing at Bab al-Hawa.
"The U.N. has been transferring humanitarian aid through the Cilvegözü and Bab al-Hawa border gates for years. On the other side of this crossing, there was damage to the roads and bridges, and these are currently being repaired, and the number of trucks passing through here and carrying U.N. humanitarian aid is increasing day by day. During this period, we told the international community and the U.N. that there are two gates in Kilis under our control, through which they can send humanitarian aid," Çavuşoğlu underlined.
