It’s a bad transaction. Turkey’s Red Crescent aid organization was criticized by the opposition and Turkish media on Sunday for selling rather than donating tents to survivors of the Feb. 6 earthquake that devastated southeastern Turkey.
According to the Cumhuriyet daily, which exposed the affair, the Turkish Red Crescent sold 2,050 tents for survivors to the non-profit NGO Ahbap for 46 million Turkish Liras ($2.4 million). The NGO announced on Twitter on Sunday that these tents had been transported to the regions affected by the earthquake and erected.
“It’s a scandal”
Turkey’s Red Crescent President Kerem Kinik confirmed on Twitter that Kizilay Cadir, a subsidiary of his organization responsible for making the tents, had provided Ahbap with accommodation “at cost”. “The Red Crescent’s cooperation with Ahbap is moral, reasonable and ethical,” said Kerem Kinik.
But his statements did not stop the outcry in the media and on social networks. “Turkey’s largest charity, the Red Crescent, sold tents instead of giving them free to those in need as people begged for them three days after the quake. It’s a scandal,” estimated Cumhuriyet’s journalist, who was behind the sale’s unveiling, Murat Agirel.
Erdogan splashed
The Turkish government has been accused of failing to distribute enough tents, humanitarian aid and deploy enough relief teams in several places in the days after the quake. NGOs like the charity Ahbap and volunteers have helped fill in the gaps.
Endowed with association status, the Turkish Red Crescent works closely with the Turkish authorities and benefits from numerous official fundraisers. Several opposition figures have called for the resignation of the Red Crescent President. ” Shame on you ! ” hammered Meral Aksener, the president of the Formation Iyi Party (nationalist) on Twitter.
This week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused critics of the Red Crescent of being “dishonest and vile”. He drew criticism from the leader of the main opposition party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.