EU to transfer €1.5B grant for Syrians in Turkey

By Serife Cetin

BRUSSELS (AA) - The EU will transfer a €1.5-billion grant for Syrians in Turkey, according to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Thursday.

"I would like to confirm that we will transfer €1.5 billion [grant] out of the second €3 billion for Syrians in Turkey," Mogherini said.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of a conference on Syria organized by the EU and the UN in Brussels, Mogherini underlined that the solution in Syria is not military, but political.

Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.

* Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev