For 2.3 million euros
Sharp criticism: Red Crescent sells tents for earthquake victims to aid organizations – instead of donating
Members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent unloading aid containers
© Hassan Ammar/AP/DPA
The aid organization Red Crescent did not distribute tents to the needy for free, but sold them. Criticism came mainly from the opposition. Meanwhile, President Erdogan is defending the organization.
The Turkish Red Crescent has been criticized for not donating tents for earthquake victims to another aid organization, but instead selling them. As the newspaper “Cumhuriyet” reported on Sunday, the Red Crescent sold 2050 tents to the aid organization Ahbap for the equivalent of almost 2.3 million euros. This is a “scandal”, wrote the journalist Murat Agirel.
“Turkey’s largest charity, the Red Crescent, sold tents instead of giving them free to those in need when people begged for them three days after the earthquake,” Agirel said. Turkish Red Crescent leader Kerem Kinik confirmed on Twitter that Kizilay Cadir, a subsidiary of his organization responsible for making the tents, had provided them to Ahbap “at cost”.
Several opposition politicians called for Kinik’s resignation. “Shame on you,” wrote the leader of the nationalist Iyi party, Meral Aksener, on Twitter.
Erdogan protects the aid organization
The Turkish government was accused of not having distributed enough tents and humanitarian aid in several places after the earthquake. Not enough rescue teams were deployed either.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called those who have criticized the Red Crescent “dishonest and despicable”. The leader of the main opposition party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, then tweeted that Erdogan was “insulting the earthquake victims”.
According to official figures, more than 46,000 people died in the severe earthquake in the early morning of February 6 in Syria and Turkey.