In the beginning, the officials went to the tent city set up by the Rotary Club with the police for enforcement and said that they would dismantle the tents and set up their own AFAD tents instead. When the meeting failed to yield results, the authorities began to dismantle the tents.
Pınar ÇETİNKAYA and Mahsun KılıçHatay Reporting for Evrensel Daily
The Turkish governmental relief agency AFAD’s members removed the tents set up by the unions, the Bread and Rose organization, and the Rotary Club, at the earthquake site in Turkey and set up their own tents instead.
AFAD confiscated by force the tent used by BİRTEK-SEN (Union of textile and leather workers), DİSK/Gıda-İş (Food workers Union of the Confederation of Progressive Labor Unions), Iletisim-İş (Union of Communication Workers) and Bread and Rose (a women’s rights organization) as a warehouse for relief supplies. However, the tents where the volunteers stayed were taken down and removed entirely.
In the beginning, the officials went to the tent city set up by the Rotary Club with the police for enforcement and said that they would dismantle the tents and set up their own AFAD tents instead. When the meeting failed to yield results, the authorities began to dismantle the tents.
Later, AFAD officials and police officers came to the tent city where BİRTEK-SEN, DİSK/Gıda-İş, Iletisim-İş and Bread and Gül unions and organizations were working to distribute supplies to the earthquake victims. The officials and the police approached the tent where the aid materials were stored and confiscated the tent by force. As the officials broke the lock and entered the tent, the Bread and Rose volunteers reacted and said that the materials inside the tent were to meet the basic needs of women and children and could not be confiscated. Volunteers removed the relief materials from the tent with the help of earthquake victims before the tent was confiscated.
AFAD officials then identified and removed the tents where BİRTEK-SEN, DİSK/Gıda-İş, Iletisim-İş, and Bread and Rose volunteers were staying. The officials said that the tents where the earthquake victims stayed would be replaced with new ones.
While AFAD tried justifying the dismantling or the renewal of the tents by saying there would be the construction of a sewerage line there. However, the earthquake victims pointed out that the AFAD tents were flooded after the rain yesterday and said that the tents would not be enough and that they demanded hygienic living spaces and containers.
Source: Evrensel
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