First Turkish aid shipment for Rohingya Muslims arrives in Myanmar

Turkey's first shipment of humanitarian aid arrived on Sept. 6 in Myanmar's Rakhine state, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has said.       
Some 1,000 tons of emergency aid packages containing rice, dried fish and clothing were delivered to the Social Services Ministry in the Rakhine state at a handover ceremony, according to the statement.  
  
The aid will be distributed to conflict areas via military helicopters in coordination with the Rakhine state government, as uncertainty and security concerns continue in the region.       

Myanmar on Sept. 5 allowed TIKA to distribute the aid to Rohingya Muslims in the state, according presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın.      

Kalın said in a written statement that the permission from Myanmar came hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's telephone conversation with Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on recent human rights violations in Rakhine.

The move makes TIKA the first foreign aid agency to get permission from the government to enter the region since the latest violence began on Aug. 25.    
    
According to the U.N., 123,600 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh and tens of thousands more were internally displaced by the latest violence.

Tensions have been simmering in Rakhine between its Buddhist and Muslim populations since communal violence broke out in 2012.      

In a security crackdown launched last October in the state's northern Maungdaw district, the U.N. has documented mass gang rapes, killings - including infants and young children - brutal beatings and disappearances.        

The report found evidence of human rights violations by security forces that indicated crimes against humanity.        ...