Red Crescent assists Fener Patriarchate

ISTANBUL

Head of the Turkish Red Crescent Akar (L) with Patriarch Bartholomeos (R).

The Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay), for the first time in its history, provided 200 boxes of food and clothing aid to the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate yesterday.

Avedis Hilkat, a board member at the Turkish Red Crescent’s Adalar office, Ahmet Lütfü Akar, head of the Turkish Red Crescent, Ömer Taşlı, director-general of the Turkish Red Crescent and Taşkın Hoşver, Marmara Regional disaster manager, met with Fener Rum Patriarch Bartholomeos.

“The target of the aid is not just Armenians, Rums or Syriacs; we also provide aid to immigrants, and needy and indigent people around the patriarchates. Humanity is our target,” Hilkat told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Next aid

The Turkish Red Crescent has been keeping an eye on the aid recipients, recording their addresses and names, and the Jewish Rabbinate will be given aid next week, Hilkat said.

“The boxes will be placed in storage, wherever the Patriarchate decides to keep them,” Hilkat said. Similar boxes left at the Armenian Patriarchate last year had caused unrest among Turkey’s Armenian community for security reasons.

The Red Crescent has also provided aid to Turkey’s Armenian Patriarchate and Syriac Metropolitan in years past.

The organization provided food and clothing aid to 3,500 immigrants and needy families living near the Kumkapı district of Istanbul, with the help of the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey, in December 2011.
The organization has also rendered aid to one-hundred disadvantaged students at a private Armenian school last month.