Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) made a call to all international donors who are willing to help earthquake victims to send tents, promising that the party will ensure the donations are distributed to those in need.
On Sunday the HDP continued its efforts to reach the victims of the 6 February twin tremors that hit mainly Kurdish-majority areas in southern Turkey (North Kurdistan).
The party has established public soup kitchens in eight provinces out of the ten that were severely damaged by the disaster.
The party’s MPs are continually posting videos showing the party’s relief work and the scale of the destruction, all mentioning the importance of solidarity needed to heal the wounds.
Providing shelter for earthquake victims has become a priority for the HDP, as the survivors are also having to endure the freezing cold.
The party’s Crisis Coordination Centre will meet tomorrow under the leadership of HDP co-chair Mithat Sancar to evaluate the disaster relief efforts so far and to discuss information received from provincial crisis centres.
Sancar is expected to make a public statement afterwards. The politician will also talk about the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) decision to halt military operations in Turkey in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Meanwhile, Nuray Özdoğan, a spokesperson for the HDP’s Legal and Human Rights Commission, organised a press conference on Sunday. Özdağan accused the Turkish government of exacerbating the devastation caused by the disaster, through its failure to enforce building codes, its declaration of construction amnesties, and its neglect of proper inspections.
“Our peoples will know that all this country’s honourable lawyers including our own Legal Commission will follow up these crimes committed against the people,” she said.
Özdağan added that the reason government declared a three-month state of emergency was to cover up its crimes and to prevent those who are responsible for the destruction being held accountable.
The senior HDP politician said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used alleged robberies and looting in the earthquake as a pretext for declaring a state of emergency, which in turn led to the targeting of refugees.
“Perceptions are being pushed towards racism with reports of looting. The information received by our crisis centre shows that these reports of looting are exaggerated, while many people are still under the rubble, many dead have not been buried, some corpses are being savaged by animals, much humanitarian aid work is still not being carried out, nad not enough tents are available. The priority is to save the people and ensure their security. But the government is seeking to justify all the illegal processes it has put into force with reports of looting,” Özdoğan said.
According to Özdağan, the HDP has received numerous reports of incidences of unrecorded detentions and torture, adding that the Turkish authorities have also been obstructing trucks sent by the party to deliver humanitarian aid to the survivors.
