A scandal over the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) selling disaster tents to a charity on the third day after the 6 February twin earthquakes has rocked Turkey over the weekend.
The scandal broke out when journalist Murat Ağırel reported that the Kızılay had sold tents to Ahbap, a charity run by musician Haluk Levent, for 46 million TL ($2.5 million) on the third day that after the seismic shock.
Levent announced on social media on Sunday that Ahbap, which has raised a significant amount of funds after the earthquake, had bought 2,050 tents from Kızılay and sent them immediately to earthquake-hit provinces in south Turkey.
“The whole country has mobilised to meet the tent requirments for our citizens affected by the earthquake on 6 February 2023, that was centred in Kahramanmaraş and affected a total of ten provinces. Our association also got in touch with all tent manufacturing companies in the country,” Ahbap wrote on its Twitter account.
The association said none of the companies had had sufficient tents in their stock and it would have take taken them one week to produce new ones.
“The whole country has mobilised to meet the tent requirments for our citizens affected by the earthquake on 6 February 2023, that was centred in Kahramanmaraş and affected a total of ten provinces. Our association also got in touch with all tent manufacturing companies in the country,” Ahbap wrote on its Twitter account.
The association said none of the companies had had sufficient tents in their stock and it would have take taken them one week to produce new ones.
According to Ahbap, the association got in touch with Kızılay Çadır ve Tekstil A.Ş, the tent-producing company for the Turkish Red Crescent, who told them they had 2,050 tents in their stock. The charity shared documents showing that they had bought all the tents immediately to meet the needs of the earthquake survivors.
Activist musician Levent also explained what went on.
“On that night when everybody was freezing while fearing for the lives of their loved ones, we did not have the luxury to discuss whether we should or should not buy those tents, and we bought them and sent them to the region,” he said on Twitter.
Levent said that it was later that he found out that Kızılay Çadır ve Tekstil A.Ş. was a company, in which the Turkish Red Crescent is a shareholder. The musician said the Turkish Red Crescent also paid for tents manufactured by the company.
The officials told Levent that the money raised by the sale of the existing tents was to be used for the production of new ones to be distributed to those in need for free.
Meanwhile, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP Burhanettin Bulut immediately filed a parliamentary question, addressed to the Minister of Interior, in relation to the incident.
“It is also claimed that the Turkish Red Crescent, whose founding aim is to prevent and alleviate the sufferings of all people without any discrimination and to protect the lives and the health of the people, has been directing its stocks and humanitarian aid to religious groups, sects and associations. The fact that the Turkish Red Crescent chose to sell its tent stocks instead of distributing them for free while our citizens were in fear for their lives, many under the rubble and others shivering in the freezing cold, makes it obvious that the institution has become a business enterprise, moving away from its core mission,” the MP saidin his parliamentary question.
Later on Sunday, the Union of Pharmacists also announced that they had had to pay for five tents used by its volunteers to provide medicines to people in the earthquake-stricken region.
Arman Üney told Sözcü newspaper that they paid 140,000 TL ($7, 415) to Kızılay Çadır ve Tekstil A.Ş for each tent of 76 square metres.
