Dear Mr. Resident Coordinator,
Dear Ambassadors,
Distinguished Participants,

Allow me first to express our thanks to the UN Resident Coordinator Mr. Kamal Malhotra and the Representatives of UNHCR and UNDP for organizing this event to launch the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan 2015-2016.

We hope this new UN plan will give us the opportunity to reduce heavy burden on Syria’s neighboring countries hosting significant number of refugees.

The new emphasis in the 3RP on resilience while retaining the refugee component is appropriate and timely.

Nearly 4 million Syrians – around one-fifth of the country’s population- have fled their country. The international appeals for aid for those refugees have only been half funded.

As the crisis enters its fifth year, the generation of young Syrians is still in danger of being lost to a cycle of violence.

We believe that developing adequate education opportunities and long-term capacities could help their current situation, and when the crisis ends, returning refugees could be a resource to their country’s reconstruction, recovery and stability.

Despite all challenges, Turkey has pursued an “open door” policy for Syrians who had to flee their country in the past 4 years, without any discrimination with regard to religious or ethnic origin.

250 thousand Syrians who are accommodated in 25 temporary protection centers are provided with food, non-food items, health and education services as well as psychological assistance, vocational training and social activities. In addition to that, more than 1.5 million Syrians who live outside these centers are also under our protection regime and they benefit from free medical services.

The UN High Commissioner Mr. Guterres has recently noted that Turkey has the biggest number of Syrians.

Only during the DEASH attacks on Kobane/Ayn al Arab in September, 197,000 Syrians crossed into Turkey over the course of few days, which is more than the number of Syrians that all of Europe has received since the beginning of the Syrian crisis.

Dear guests,

I would like to emphasize here the urgency in overcoming the growing needs of Syrians especially in the fields of education, health care and livelihood.

There are almost 550 thousand school-age children. Around 70 thousand students receive education in 963 classrooms at the camps. Outside the camps there are almost 480 thousand children who need education.

Therefore, education constitutes a vital part of 3RP and emphasis need to be placed on creating more classrooms and education opportunities for these children. Particularly, equal education opportunities for the girls at school age must be reflected and supported in the 3RP.

We also believe that education is a foremost need for the youth within the scope of the reconstruction of Syria. In this respect, we expect technical support and proper funding for the implementation of the UN “No Lost Generation” Strategy from the international community.

As of March 2015, more than 3 million Syrians have been provided with health care services. I would like to mention that more than half million Syrians have been treated in Turkish hospitals and 46 thousand babies were born in camps in Turkey.

The Prime Ministry’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, AFAD was established only 5 years ago with the primary mission of “disaster-resilient society”. In these 5 years, due to the protracted crises around Turkey and our disaster-prone geography, AFAD was forced to develop and implement an integrated and inter-operable “Disaster Response Plan”. AFAD is the coordinator body of all services provided to Syrians in Turkey.

Furthermore, in compliance with EU standards, the Directorate General for Migration Management was established in 2013 and the Temporary Protection Regulation came into force to grant legal status to Syrians on 22 October 2014.

This new legal framework will complement and reinforce our humanitarian response by allowing Syrians to enjoy additional rights such as employment and education.

We appreciate the leading role of the UNHCR on the protection of Syrian refugees. Indeed, it has been effective in ensuring protection of the internally displaced Syrians and supporting the refugees in the neighboring countries.With the resilience part of the 3RP, we are pleased that the UNDP will also be included in this process in a more effective way.
The attitude of Turkish society to migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and people under temporary protection has always been one of tolerance, sympathy and solidarity. The sheer number of foreigners that sought refuge in Turkey over the years and especially in the present is a clear evidence of this.

Up to present, the government of Turkey has spent more than $ 5.2 billion to take care of Syrians, and the Turkish people much more. However, the contribution that we have received from the international community, only 300 million US Dollars, has been below all expectations. This is not sustainable. The financial burden on Turkey due to this humanitarian crisis is increasing day by day.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In the latest UN inter-agency Syria Regional Response Plan for Syrian Refugees, RRP-6, Turkey’s requirement was set as 522 million US Dollars at the beginning of 2014. This amount was later revised down to 497 million US Dollars. However, as of December 2014, Turkey has only received a funding of 28%, the lowest level compared to other regional countries hosting Syrian refugees. The regional average stands at 51%.

Turkey’s share in UN regional response appeals has been the least funded among all of Syria’s neighboring countries.

The international community urgently needs to find innovative, long-term cooperative arrangements beyond traditional humanitarian approaches to enable forced migrants to use their talents and energy to sustain themselves and contribute to development in host countries.

Host countries should not be left alone in coping with this humanitarian crisis which requires a full-fledged historical partnership among all members of the international community. Much more needs to be done, especially to reduce the increasing burden on Syria’s neighboring countries.

The 3RP 2015-2016 Turkey Plan foresees a total budget of 624 million US Dollars, namely 460 million for the Refugee component and 164 million for the Resilience component. Therefore, I would like to underline that maximum funding of 3RP for Turkey is essential in order to realize the infrastructure projects especially on education in the plan.

Thus, we see 3RP 2015-2016 as an opportunity for international community to realize a fair burden-sharing which so far has not been the case.

We hope that the third Pledging Conference for Syria to be held in Kuwait on 31 March 2015 will translate into much needed concrete funds for addressing urgent humanitarian needs in Syria and neighboring countries.

We would like to urge members of the international community to act for solidarity and burden sharing and also to revise upwards their planned contributions in the period ahead.

In concluding my remarks, I would like to emphasize once more that Turkey will spare no effort in its commitment to strengthen international cooperation with a view to better managing protecting human lives and life conditions of Syrians.

Dear guests, thank you for your participation and interest.