™s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate

Yazidis fleeing their hometown of Sinjar after it was attacked by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have started to settle in a camp established by Turkey’s disaster agency in the Zakho region of Northern Iraq.

Turkey’s disaster agency will set up a tent city in Zakho, northern Iraq, to host around 16,000 Yazidi people who fled the Sinjar region amid ongoing attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Ankara is mobilizing aid to protect Iraqi Turkmens on the southern neighbor’s territory in response to the threat posed by the jihadist ISIL Turkey is accelerating its plans to help construct a new refugee camp in northern Iraq for Turkmens who were forced to flee north after the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant (ISIL) captured the Sinjar region.

Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay has sought to allay widening concerns over the growing number of Syrian refugees begging on streets as well as over the cheap labor force provided by the refugees, while calling on provincial administrations to deal with the issue, via assistance from civil society if necessary.

Turkey has been doing its best to reach out to Iraqi Turkmens caught in the middle of sectarian strife in neighboring Iraq, the head of a government aid agency has said, in an apparent response to criticism that the government has been ignoring the plight of Turkmens.

In the aftermath of the abduction of dozens of Turkish citizens by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Mosul, the Turkish government has drawn contingency plans for the Consulate General in Basra in addition to its embassy in the capital city of Baghdad, a senior Turkish diplomat said on June 16.