7-yr-old Syrian blogger Bana Alabed, the voice of Aleppo, meets Turkish President Erdogan

7-yr-old Syrian blogger Bana Alabed, the voice of Aleppo, meets Turkish President Erdogan

FP Staff December 22, 2016, 18:05:22 IST

The seven-year-old Syrian girl who gained the world’s attention with her live tweets while the city of Aleppo was battling for freedom, met the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.

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7-yr-old Syrian blogger Bana Alabed, the voice of Aleppo, meets Turkish President Erdogan

The seven-year-old Syrian girl who gained the world’s attention with her live tweets while the city of Aleppo was battling for freedom, met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, according to DW.com .

Bana, seven-year-old blogger from Syria meets Turkish President

Bana and her mother Fatemah were hosted by Erdogan at his palace in Ankara. He posted photos of the meeting, which came after the girl and her family were safely evacuated to Turkey. “Turkey will always stand with the people of Syria,” he said on his official Twitter account.

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The young blogger was one of thousands of Syrians who were evacuated from the rebel-held areas of Aleppo, after a deal was sealed between the Turks and the Russian government.

Bana would constantly uploaded pictures and videos while her country was ravaged by the six years of war, and has gained over 352,000 followers on the micro-blogging site since September . Her account of the war was one of the most important first-hand impressions of the unfolding tragedy.

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In addition to the seven-year-old girl’s updates and appeals to rescue her family from the relentless bombardment in rebel-controlled areas of Aleppo, several citizens  began posting  emotional goodbyes on social media and in widely circulated messages. The Syrian civil war has killed nearly 300,000 people, of which 15,000 were children. Bana’s twitter handle, coordinated by her mother Fatemah, called out to Erdogan and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevult Cavusoglu to halt the ceasefire between the regime soldiers and the rebels. Upon the evacuation of the thousands of Syrians,the Foreign Minister tweeted:

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Bana’s account shows the destruction in Aleppo through pictures and tweets. Her house, the rubble-littered streets and the ruins of Aleppo were brought to the forefront by social media. People have since expressed concern, fearing for her life when her tweets became less frequent.

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She even had to brave allegations of her Twitter account being fake, and the site had to step in and verify its authenticity. Over 25,000 people have been evacuated out of eastern Aleppo, DW.com reported _._

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