Seven-year-old Syrian girl blogger meets Erdogan at Ankara palace

Seven-year-old Syrian girl blogger meets Erdogan at Ankara palace
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Bana al-Abed and her family at his palace in Ankara on Wednesday.
2 min read
21 December, 2016
The young Syrian girl was one of thousands of people evacuated from Aleppo [Getty]

Seven-year-old Bana al-Abed, whose Twitter account gave a tragic description of the bombing of Aleppo in Syria, on Wednesday met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his palace in Ankara.

Erdogan received Bana and her family at his palace, the state-run Anadolu agency said, publishing a picture of Erdogan hugging the girl.

A published video showed a seated Erdogan holding Bana
and an unidentified boy sitting on his knees [Getty]

A video published by the agency also showed a seated Erdogan holding Bana and an unidentified boy sitting on his knees, flanked by his wife Emine.

The young Syrian girl was one of thousands of people evacuated from once rebel-held areas of Aleppo in the last days under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia.

She was evacuated on Monday and Turkish officials promised she would come to Turkey with her family. But it was not clear when she had crossed over.

Read more here: Seven-year-old 'Twitter girl' Bana among those 'evacuated' from Aleppo

For her 330,000 followers, Bana is a symbol of the tragedy unfolding in Syria, although Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has slammed her and her mother's nearly daily tweets as propaganda.

Turkey is hosting some 2.7 million refugees from the Syria conflict but has made clear it now prefers to look after those recently displaced, who are not injured, on the Syrian side of the border.

However it makes exceptions for special cases and the wounded.