18 February 2016•Update: 18 February 2016
By Samet Dogan
ISTANBUL
A kids' magazine in Turkey has published a special edition depicting paintings made by Syrian refugee children of war-torn Syria.
The magazine will be displayed at an Arabic Book Fair in Istanbul.
Hulya Cullu, chief editor Semerkant Kids' Magazine, told Anadolu Agency that the idea to make war-affected children paint came to her head when she met a group helping needy Syrian families.
"I wished to make something good for them and I decided to use art therapy for the war-affected children. I started to meet a group of children once a week and I tried to cure them by making them paint," Cullu said.
Initially, the Syrian children drew blood and the Syrian flag. "The first paintings were really interesting. The paintings are actually the proof of how the children are affected by the war," Cullu said.
Syria has remained locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
Turkey currently hosts 2.7 million Syrian refugees and has spent $9 billion caring for them. The UN’s refugee agency has allocated $455 million.
According to the Turkish government, over 2.5 million Syrian refugees are currently living in Turkey. Also, more than 67,000 Syrian children had been born in Turkey since the conflict in Syria ignited in 2011.
