Angelina Jolie visits Syrian refugees in Turkey camps

ANKARA, Turkey – Hollywood star and UN special envoy Angelina Jolie on Thursday, September 13, visited Turkey’s largest camp for Syrian refugees near the border, where overjoyed thousands welcomed her, Turkish media reported.

Jolie, accompanied by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonia Guterres, met with some of the 12,000 refugees at Oncupinar camp in southeastern Kilis city, which lies right on the border with their conflict-wracked homeland.

The Oscar-winning actress listened to the stories of the refugees who fled the violence in Syria, where a brutal conflict that began as a peaceful uprising against the Damascus regime has now killed around 27,000 people, according to some estimates.

The media was not allowed to cover Jolie’s meetings with the refugees.

Jolie was also briefed by Turkish officials at Oncupinar on the conditions at the border camps which altogether shelter some 80,000 registered refugees, Anatolia news agency reported.

Jolie, who first visited a different refugee camp in Turkey in June last year, will also travel to another camp in nearby Gaziantep city, and move on to Ankara for talks with officials, including President Abdullah Gul.

On Tuesday, Jolie visited a refugee camp in Jordan where she appealed to the world to “do everything they can to support these refugees” fleeing the escalating conflict in their country.

Ankara has called for safe zones to protect people on Syrian soil, but the proposal fell on deaf ears at a UN Security Council meeting last month. – Agence France-presse