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Turkish president labels killing of Rohingya Muslims 'genocide'

Friday, 01 September 2017 5:44 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 02 September 2017 12:32 AM ]

This August 30, 2017 photo shows Rohingya Muslim refugees reaching for food aid at Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. (Photo by AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the killing of hundreds of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar during the latest wave of violence that erupted a week ago was “genocide.”

Almost 400 people have died in Myanmar’s Rakhine state since the country’s army stepped up a military crackdown on the Rohingya last week, making it the worst wave of violence against the persecuted minority in decades, new official figures have shown.

"There is a genocide there. They remain silent towards this... All those looking away from this genocide carried out under the veil of democracy are also part of this massacre," Erdogan said in Istanbul on Friday.

The Turkish president said the issue would be discussed in detail in the upcoming session of the United Nations General Assembly in mid-September in New York.

Erdogan’s comments came as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Myanmar’s military forces to show “restraint,” warning that a “humanitarian catastrophe” was looming in the west of the country.

Rohingya Muslims, a community of more than a million people, have been denied citizenship and access to basic rights as the Buddhist-majority country of Myanmar views them as intruders from neighboring Bangladesh. The Rohingya reject claims about their origins and say their ancestors have lived in the area for decades.

Children fall down as a group of Rohingya Muslim refugee people walk on the muddy path after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 1, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

Buddhist extremists have been waging communal violence in Rakhine since 2012. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands forced from their homes as a result.

The International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday that the government's latest crackdown in Myanmar had forced 18,500 members of the Rohingya community to flee to Bangladesh in less than a week.

The United Nations believes that Myanmar’s government might have committed ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in its crackdown on the Rohingya.

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