Turkey's Top Cleric Calls For End To Child Cruelty

Turkey's head of religious affairs on Sunday called for an end to child cruelty.



Mehmet Gormez, president of Diyanet and Turkey's most senior cleric, told a children's event in Ankara that children suffered the most from conflict.



"When you look at the situation of children in various parts of the world, from Africa to Asia, Latin America to Eurasia, you can see that the humanity has lost its sense of compassion," he said.



"Adults will have a hard time when it comes to answering to God for the children who have been starved, deprived of education, and left to die."



Gormez said humanity needed to rediscover compassion and humanity which can only be found "in the hearts of children."



He added: "Children suffer the biggest cruelty in wars and acts of violence. May God bless us with the opportunity to build a world where no child is subject to harm."



At least 230 million children lived in areas plagued by conflict in 2014, according to UNICEF, with as many as 15 million children caught up in violent conflicts in the Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, Palestine, Syria and Ukraine. - Ankara