No Syrian woman in Turkish camps complained of sexual assault: FM Davutoğlu

ANKARA

A female Syrian refugee uses a plastic rubbish bag as a headscarf as she walks through her makeshift tent in central Ankara October 20, 2013. REUTERS photo

Not a single complaint regarding sexual assault against Syrian women staying at temporary sheltering centers has so far been received by the Turkish authorities, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has stated.

Davutoğlu’s statement came this week in response to a motion submitted by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu a few months ago.

“No single complaint concerning sexual assault of Syrian women staying at temporary sheltering centers has been received. Such claims do not reflect the truth by any means,” Davutoğlu said, adding that Syrians staying at these centers were able to convey their complaints to the administration of the centers directly or through village muhtars.

The minister also noted that as of Nov. 4, 2013, 200,046 Syrians had been residing in 21 temporary sheltering centers in 10 provinces.

In a separate response to another motion by Tanrıkulu, Davutoğlu acknowledged that a “limited number of citizens” of the Republic of Turkey have travelled to regions of conflict in order to join the armed resistance there. In the motion, Tanrıkulu had asked whether there had been citizens who lost their lives in Chechnya, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan as they joined armed resistances in those countries. He also asked whether any citizens have been captured in other countries on charges of terrorism against those countries.

Some of those “limited number of citizens,” lost their lives in those regions, Davutoğlu said, without elaborating on the number of those casualties.

Davutoğlu, however, noted that 45 Turkish citizens had been arrested in other countries on charges of terrorism.

“According to transfer of convicts, only persons who are convicted with final verdict are subject to extradition. In case of being released, our citizens under arrest are returning home through normal ways,” he said.