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Erdoğan urged the Muslims to take a common stand against Myanmar violence

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan celebrated Eid Al-Adha with AK Party members. Erdoğan urged Muslims across the world in speech that the Muslim world to take a common stand against the violence which Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar were exposed.

Agencies and A News TÜRKIYE
Published September 01,2017
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Speaking at an Eid celebration of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party in Istanbul later in the day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged the Muslim world to take a common stand against the violence in Myanmar.

"We are well aware that the problem of Arakan [Rakhine] is a manifestation of global power struggles," he said.

"None of the forces that want to mislead the state of Myanmar due to the strategic importance of the region have taken any deterring action to stop this crime of humanity," Erdoğan said, adding that Turkey is trying to bring its sensitivity to the issue.

"We are trying to mobilize international mechanisms, we are carrying out humanitarian aid activities in the region," Erdoğan said adding that the Turkish Red Crescent and the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) will continue providing humanitarian aid to Rohingya Muslims.

"But often the results of our efforts fall short because the Islamic world does not react as a whole to these massacres," he stressed.

Erdoğan said that the "terrorist stamp" had become a "tool of abuse" that legitimizes all massacres, oppression, and persecution of Muslims.

The way the Rohingya are encouraged to turn to radical terrorist groups should be considered, he said.

Erdoğan stressed that Islamic civilization is trying to eradicate groups such as Daesh and Boko Haram, groups "brokered, organized, armed, guided, and whose fronts are led by indeterminate powers."

In Rohingya "there are efforts to do the same," he said, adding that he hopes the "bloody game" there will fail.

Violence erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine state on Aug. 25 when the country's security forces launched an operation against the Rohingya Muslim community. It triggered a fresh influx of refugees towards neighboring Bangladesh, though the country sealed off its border to the refugees.

Media reports said Myanmar security forces used disproportionate force, displacing thousands of Rohingya villagers and destroying their homes with mortars and machine guns.

The region has seen simmering tension between its Buddhist and Muslim populations since communal violence broke out in 2012.

A crackdown launched last October in Maungdaw, where Rohingya make up the majority, led to a UN report on human rights violations and crimes against humanity by security forces.

The UN documented mass gang rape, killings -- including infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances. Rohingya representatives have said that some 400 people have been slain during the crackdown.