Turkey receives 2015 Humanitarian Award for hosting refugees

Turkey received Saturday an award from the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. for its humanitarian efforts towards Syrian and Iraqi refugees.  

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, presented the 2015 Humanitarian Award to the Turkish ambassador to the U.S., Serdar Kilic, during an annual ceremony of the organization. 

Thanking CAIR for its efforts to stand in solidarity with the Muslims throughout their 21 years of existence, Kilic noted that the brotherly feelings of CAIR for Turkey and its people made the award "much more valuable".   

The award was attributing to Turkey for its role in hosting currently more than 2.2 million Syrian refugees and 200,000 Iraqi refugees since 2011. 

 "Just to give an example in this regard, during the last cours of the four years, Turkey has taken more refugees (only the number of Syrian refugees) than the U.S. has taken in thirty years," Kilic said.

Noting that Turkey has accepted the refugees regardless of their ethnicity or religion, Kilic noted that Turkey has allocated $7.6 billion for refugees since the war broke out four years ago in Syria. 

"The international community failed to give assistance to the Syrian people who are fighting for their dignity, in Turkey or in the European states," the ambassador stated.  

 Kilic stressed that it was still far beyond the capabilities of one country to address the issue and called the international community to take action. 

Millions of Syrian refugees have fled their country since war broke out more than four years ago. The UN said in June that the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has "for the first time in the post-World War II era exceeded 50 million people".