President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was the guest of honor at the board meeting of the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) held in Ankara on Monday to elect new members. The society marks its 157th anniversary this year and Erdoğan had nothing but praise for the country’s primary aid organization.
Erdoğan highlighted the Red Crescent’s work in Gaza, which suffers under constant Israeli attacks and a lingering blockade.
“The Turkish Red Crescent never abandoned our Gazan brothers and sisters. They deliver aid in Gaza regularly and every day, 15,000 people benefit from the Red Crescent’s aid in Gaza,” Erdoğan said, referring to services by the charity’s branch in the Palestinian enclave.
Since Israel ended a cease-fire with Hamas in mid-March, Israel has unleashed fierce strikes on the territory that have killed hundreds. It has captured swaths of territory and now controls roughly 50% of Gaza. Before the truce ended, Israel halted all humanitarian aid into the territory, including food, fuel and water, setting off what is believed to be the worst humanitarian crisis in nearly 19 months of war.
The ban on aid has led to widespread hunger, and shortages have set off looting. The war has already displaced more than 90% of Gaza's population, often multiple times, and turned many parts of it into an uninhabitable moonscape. Israel's offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials.
Türkiye has been a strong advocate for the rights of Palestinians, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. It cut off all ties with Tel Aviv and joined international action to hold Israel’s Netanyahu administration accountable for the massacre of Palestinians and the deprivation of their rights.
Turkish Red Crescent, or Türk Kızılay, is the largest humanitarian organization in Türkiye, with an international network to help other nations in need.
It was founded on June 11, 1868, as the Society for Aiding Wounded and Ailing Ottoman Soldiers.
Over the years, it has been called the Ottoman Red Crescent Society (1877), Türkiye’s Red Crescent Community (1923), the Turkish Red Crescent Community (1935) and finally, the Turkish Red Crescent Society (1947).
The name Kızılay was given to the institution by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Türkiye.
The nonprofit and volunteer-based social service institution provides unconditional aid and service and is a corporate body governed by special legal provisions.
Disaster management, blood donations, health care, first aid, international aid, and immigration and refugee services are among the agency’s activities.
Erdoğan said the charity always “stood by our nation, from the Erzincan earthquake (in 1939) to the disaster of the century,” referring to the February 2023 earthquakes in southern Türkiye, which killed thousands.
“We have seen them on the front lines in all of our crisis areas. Whether in pandemics or natural disasters, the Red Crescent has rushed to the aid of the victims. May Allah bless the Red Crescent, which extends the helping and solidarity hand of our nation to all corners of the world. In the 157 years since its journey began, it has become an invaluable institution with 513 branches and representatives, nearly 400,000 volunteers, four hospitals, two medical centers, soup kitchens, and nursing homes. It is also important to note that the Turkish Red Crescent meets 97% of the country’s total blood demand. As of April, the number of its donors has reached 1.18 million and I believe this number will continue to grow,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan slammed claims that the Red Crescent failed to help the 2023 earthquake victims and said the charity was still in the earthquake-hit area, continuing to deliver aid.
“In the earthquake that occurred in Istanbul last week, Turkish Red Crescent was once again in the field, by the side of the people. With 1,650 personnel and 319 vehicles at 350 points, it rushed to the aid of the nation and mobilized for its people,” he added.
