Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony near the Georgian city of Gori on Saturday, TIKA head Musa Kulaklikaya said that construction of the units would be completed and the Georgians in need would move to their new homes in June 2009.

Kulaklikaya also said that TIKA planned and successfully implemented various projects related to agriculture, stockbreeding, health and education in Georgia.

Delivering a speech, Georgia's Deputy Prime Minister Davit Tkeshelashvili said that Turkey was the first country that helped Georgia during the clashes between the country and Russia last August.

Tkeshelashvili thanked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, TIKA, the Turkish government and Turkish public for their support to Georgia.

According to the data provided by "Internal Displacement Monitoring Center" (IDMC) and the United Nations (UN), 158,703 people had to leave their homes after the clashes between Georgia and Russia in August 2008.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), nearly 40 percent of such figure was children below the age of 16 who had to depart from their families.

The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) is the Turkish government's Development Cooperation Agency. TIKA has coordination offices in 20 countries and operates in many countries across Africa, Asia and Europe, delivering development assistance to partner countries through its projects and activities.


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Güncelleme Tarihi: 05 Nisan 2009, 15:06