Donations to NGO jump after police raid

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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The total amount of donations could provide scholarships to 37,000 students, the daily wrote. People in provinces of Balıkesir, Antalya, and Adana applied to the association for membership after the house of the organization’s chairwoman was searched and other leaders arrested.

In Kanal D channel’s main news bulletin, a campaign was initiated for the organization and 1.2 million Turkish Liras was collected. Meanwhile, computers were donated to the organization; the police confiscated the organization’s computers as evidence during he search.

To compensate for damage
About 800 liras were collected in Balıkesir, while 500 liras were donated in Antalya. The workers of Middle East Technical University, or ODTÜ, also collected 10,000 liras among themselves and donated to the organization. The donations were used to compensate for the damage that resulted from the police operation, the daily wrote.

Forty-two new harddisks were bought instead of those that were taken by police. The association cannot clearly calculate the amount of donations as the computer system cannot be re-constructed. Meanwhile Güler Sabancı, the head of Sabancı Holding, also said they would continue to work together with the association.

Reaction from intellectuals
Actor Genco Erkal, who won the Aydın Doğan Prize, donated 50,000 liras to the association while a group of artists including actors Tarık Akan, Müjdat Gezen and author Fikret Otyam protested the raid in a news statement.

The raid in the association’s branches in several cities and the search of the house of Professor Türkan Saylan, the head of ÇYDD, who is also a cancer patient, attracted enormous reaction in the country. Sezen Aksu, a famous pop singer connected to Kanal D, presented her support for Saylan.