160,000 Syrian Kurds enter Turkey from Kobani

Davutoglu announces that the figure has reached 160,335 since Turkey opened the border crossing last Friday.

A total of 160,335 Syrian Kurds have fled to Turkey in the last week alone, escaping from ISIL attacks in the northern Syrian town of Kobani, said Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday.

Davutoglu made the remarks during his address at a meeting of the provincial chairmen of his Justice and Development (AK) Party at party headquarters in capital Ankara.

“In only three days last week, 138,211 of them entered our territory. With the incoming Syrians, the total number of refugees in Turkey has exceeded 1.5 million,” he said.

Turkey opened the frontier last Friday to cope with a rush of Kurdish civilians fearing an attack on the Syrian border town of Ayn al-Arab, known as Kobani in Kurdish, in the province of Raqqa.

The Syrian civilians seeking shelter from the ISIL assault on their villages are being registered at a coordination center set up by Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Presidency upon entry to Turkey.