Syrians shop for free: Turkish aid agency opens mall in Idlib province

A Turkish aid agency on Monday opened a shopping mall in war-torn Idlib province of Syria for families living in the region, it was announced on Wednesday.

Erhan Yemelek, Humanitarian Relief Organization’s (IHH) Syria coordinator, told Anadolu Agency that the mall has shops for grocery, clothes and shoes. It will also be used as a place to organise social activities.

“Syrian families [affected by the ongoing civil war] will benefit from the mall free of cost for a year,” he said.

Yemelek explained that the aid agency will determine families in need of help and give them an allowance for shopping.

The Humanitarian Relief Foundation is one of the leading aid agencies in Turkey, which sends humanitarian aid to suffering people across the world, including war-torn Syria, drought-hit Somalia, and conflict-torn regions in Myanmar.

Read: Turkey and US ‘mission creep’ in Syria

The organisation has sent over 12,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid to Syria so far since the civil war started in 2011.

Syria’s Idlib province came under an alleged chemical attack by Assad regime warplanes on 4th April. More than 100 civilians were killed and 500 injured in the attack in the town of Khan Sheikhun, according to the Syrian opposition government’s health minister, Firas Jundi.

The Syrian regime has denied allegations that it targeted the area with chemical weapons.