nsnews online desk: Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has arrived in Dhaka on a two-day official visit Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali received him at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport upon his arrival at 8:45pm yesterdayTurkish PM is staying at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
The official talks with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina will be held in the afternoon at the Prime Minister’s Office. Both sides are expected to sign a number of deals and MoUs.
He will also meet President Md Abdul Hamid at Bangabhavan on Tuesday evening. The prime minister will host a banquet in his honor at the Sonargaon Hotel on the same evening.
On Wednesday morning, he will visit refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar to see the situation of Rohingyas on the ground.
The Human Rights Watch said 354 villages were partially or fully destroyed in the Rakhine State since the military crackdown began in August.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein told the BBC on Monday that attacks on the Rohingya had been “well thought out and planned” and he had asked Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi to do more to stop the military action.
The top UN human rights official has also said he would not be surprised if a court one day ruled that acts of genocide had been committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.
Turkey’s vocal response has been seen by many commentators as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ambition to be a global Muslim leader.
Erdoğan was one of the first who managed to get permission for humanitarian aid to enter Myanmar when the Burmese government blocked all UN aid towards the Rohingyas.
He also sent aid to Rohingyas in Bangladesh through his wife Emine Erdoğan, drawing huge publicity. As the chair of the OIC, he also held a special session on Rohingya.
Yildirim, before his arrival in a news conference in Ankara, said the visit aims to address regional issues such as Rohingya crisis and to enhance relations between the two nations.
He also applauded the Bangladeshi government for “not leaving them [Rohingya] in the lurch”.
Turkish PM leave for Turkey from Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday after visiting the camp. Mahmood Ali will see him off at Cox’s Bazar airport.
