Ankara. Meeting with the President of Turkey
President Andrzej Duda during his visit to Turkey, appealed for international assistance in dealing with the Ukrainian refugee crisis in Poland.
Andrzej Duda paid a visit to Ankara on Wednesday to discuss with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan, ways to defuse the Russia–Ukraine hostilities.
He told a joint press conference with Erdogan, that one of the topics of the talks was „the problem of refugees from Ukraine which, today, primarily affects Poland to a great extent.”
Andrzej Duda said that, until now, nearly 2 million refugees have come to Poland from war–torn Ukraine which is a „huge challenge” for his country.
We can safely say that today we have a refugee crisis in our country. If we do not receive international support, we will be in a very difficult situation, he said.
He appealed to the entire international community to help Poland. „We need it very much at the moment,” he said.
Andrzej Duda also said he was pleased he could discuss the Ukrainian refugee issue with Erdogan as „Turkey is the country that, over the last decades, has probably been the most affected in the whole world by the refugee problem.”
He added that Poland would able to take advantage of Turkish experience in this respect.
He also thanked the Turkish president for „his efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, to bring about a ceasefire there,” and added that Turkey was seeking peace in this region of the world, as it was a country situated in an „absolutely strategic place” and as a state „takes care of the Black Sea straits.”
„Thank you for the contribution that Turkey is making today in this regard so that this peace returns to Ukraine,” Andrzej Duda told Erdogan.
„We have no doubt that everything must be done to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine and halt the Russians from bombing Ukrainian cities, towns, villages and killing civilians,” he said at the press conference.
Andrzej Duda also pointed out that he was counting on the international community to join in the Ukraine reconstruction efforts after the end of the war.
I hope that the international community will... first of all, aid financially the process of rebuilding all infrastructure, including residential infrastructure in Ukraine, he said.
„It is a great task for the whole honourable, democratic world to help in this process,” Andrzej Duda added. (PAP)