UN chief to visit Syrian refugee camps in Turkey

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Despite a deal between rival Iraqi military leaders to defuse recent tensions in the Kurdish areas, bombings in and around Kirkuk kill nearly 10 people. AFP photo

U.N. Secretary General Ban Kimoon will visit Turkey next week to visit Syrian refugees residing in camps in the country’s south and meet with senior leaders, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Ban will visit a number of camps in southern Turkey on Dec. 7 before meeting leaders in the capital, according to a spokesman from Turkey’s Foreign Ministry. Turkey is home to nearly 130,000 refugees. In recent weeks, the U.N. chief has warned about the danger of the Syria conflict spilling over into Turkey.

Worries are especially growing after the Turkish military boosted troop numbers along the frontier and retaliated after shells from Syria began hitting Turkish border towns, killing five people in one instance on Oct. 3.

Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone, and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Rajiv Shah recently visited refugee camps in the southeastern province of Kilis.