Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutogluReuters

Turkey’s foreign minister on Thursday deplored what he called an international failure to tackle the humanitarian crisis in war-ridden Syria, Reuters reported.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said food and medicine for Syrians are running out and noted that snipers were shooting pregnant women.

Davutoglu said that Turkey, which has received more than 600,000 Syrian refugees, would keep its border with Syria open to people fleeing the violence but said the world needed to share the humanitarian burden.

“I have to express our deep disappointment and frustration because of the absence of a proper reaction by the international community regarding the humanitarian situation on the ground,” he told reporters in Kuwait during a bilateral visit, according to Reuters.

Turkey, which shares a 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Syria, is a strong critic of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and a major supporter of rebels fighting to oust him.

The more than two-and-a-half-year conflict has killed over 100,000 people and displaced millions.

“Those who can come to Turkey, they are the lucky ones, those who are back in Syria, they do not have anything to eat, they do not have hospitals, medicines, anything,” Davutoglu said.

In an allusion to divided global powers who dominate the UN Security Council, he criticized those responsible for a failure to see through a council resolution to come to grips with the Syrian crisis.

“Snipers are shooting pregnant ladies,” he said, citing recent media reports. Civilians without access to food are being forced to eat cat and dog meat to survive, Davutoglu said at a news conference with his Kuwaiti counterpart.

Refugees from Syria’s civil war have fled in large numbers not only to Turkey, but also to Jordan and Lebanon.

The UN has warned that the number of Syrian refugees could double or triple by the end of the year if no solution is found to the ongoing conflict.

Israel, meanwhile, has treated dozens of wounded Syrians from the civil war in hospitals in the northern part of the country.

Most of these wounded Syrians are brought for treatment in Israel by IDF soldiers after they manage to reach the border. Israel accepts the wounded Syrians and provides them with medical treatment, despite Syria formally being an enemy country.