Trustee board appointed to Turkish Red Crescent by court

ANKARA – Demirören News Agency

An Ankara court has appointed a trustee board to the Turkish Red Crescent in order to gather an extraordinary assembly.

The 9th Court of First Instance in Ankara appointed the heads of the Istanbul and Ankara branches, İlhami Yıldırım and Ahmet Hizanlıoğlu, alongside Justice Ministry counsellor Mekan Sarıkaya, to the trustee board on Dec. 12.

The administration of the Turkish Red Crescent has the right to appeal within two weeks, read the court verdict.

The president of the association, Kerem Kınık, said they will appeal the ruling.

“Our nation and all the oppressed people should stay assured that the activities of the Turkish Red Crescent will continue without any interruption,” he said on his Twitter account on Dec. 12.

The executive board of the Turkish Red Crescent had recently decided to shut down many of its branches to bring the number of them from around 700 to 200.

But many executives of those branches resorted to the judiciary, demanding an extraordinary general assembly to convene. The executive board rejected those demands.

Kınık said the decision of closing many branches was made in the aftermath of the coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

The local branches which were allegedly linked with FETÖ members, who are accused of being behind the attempted takeover, were closed, Kınık said. Some other branches which were not active in “taking to the streets and taking side with the nation” in the aftermath of the coup attempt were also closed, he added.

The Turkish Red Crescent president also said many branches which allegedly failed to convey the donations to the relevant authorities were also shut down.

Trustees Yıldırım and Hizanlıoğlu have been serving as members of the supervisory board of the association founded in 1868 with the name “Hilal-i Ahmer” as part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. It took the name “Kızılay” in Turkish in 1947.