Aleppo's Twitter girl meets Erdogan

Aleppo's Twitter star, seven-year-old Bana Alabed, has met with Turkey's president in his palace.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, embraces Bana Al-Abed, 7, from Aleppo, Syria, at his Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, embraces Bana Al-Abed, 7, from Aleppo, Syria, at his Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey. Source: AAP

A seven-year-old Syrian girl who drew global attention with her Twitter updates from besieged Aleppo has met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at his palace in Ankara.

Photographs released on Erdogan's official Twitter account showed the president hugging Bana Alabed as she sat on his lap on Wednesday.

Bana and her mother Fatemah were evacuated safely along with 25,000 other people from the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo this week.

Turkey has supported rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"I was pleased to host @AlabedBana and her family at the Presidential Complex today. Turkey will always stand with the people of Syria," Erdogan said on his official Twitter account.

Helped by her mother, who manages the @AlabedBana account, Bana Alabed has uploaded pictures and videos of life during the nearly six-year-old Syrian war, gaining around 352,000 followers on the micro-blogging site since September.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said when Bana and her mother were evacuated from Aleppo that she would be brought to Turkey with her family.

The eventual departure of thousands left in Aleppo's insurgent zone will hand full control of the city to Assad, the biggest prize of the nearly six-year-old civil war.

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Published 22 December 2016 6:26am
Updated 22 December 2016 7:07am
Source: AAP


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