Turkish NGOs send truckloads of aid to Syria

By Yusuf Soyalp, Ramazan Koc, and Muhsin Arslan

KONYA / BILECIK / VAN, Turkey (AA) – Five truckloads of humanitarian aid donated by the Turkish people were sent to Syrians, the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said Wednesday.

At a ceremonial sendoff for trucks from Konya, central Anatolia, a representative of the province’s Abdullah Yagci district condemned the attacks in eastern Ghouta, Syria, saying: “Turkey always stands with Syrians.”

Two truckloads of aid were collected from people in Ilgin, Konya.

The group also sent a truckload of relief to Syrians from the northwestern province of Bilecik.

Furthermore, from southeastern Turkey, another two truckloads of humanitarian aid were sent by a charity group called the Van Civil Solidarity Initiative.

Separately, the IHH opened a bakery which can produce 35,000 loaves of bread a day in northwestern Syria's Sarmada province, near Idlib, a city which has faced numerous attacks from the Assad regime.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. This led to a military conflict between the Syrian opposition groups and the Assad regime over the war-torn country’s territory.