HDP co-chairs met with police cordon outside Red Crescent's offices

Officials of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) were prevented by the police on Tuesday from making a public statement outside the offices of the Turkish Red Crescent, who has recently been exposed to have sold over two thousand tents to an NGO in the immediate wake of the twin earthquakes on 6 February instead of instantly delivering them to survivors.

The area around the headquarters of Turkish Red Crescent in Ankara was cordoned off by the police, and HDP officials, co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar among them, were not allowed to approach to express their protest.

Eş Genel Başkanlarımız #Buldan ve #Sancar Kızılay önünde açıklama yapıyor https://t.co/f1blR1BbWV

— HDP (@HDPgenelmerkezi) February 28, 2023

Sancar and Buldan instead made addresses at a nearby spot.

Sancar said:

"We've come to make a public statement outside Red Crescent's offices, but we've seen that the entire area is once again under police blockade. The government who did not show up after the earthquake and abandoned people to freeze to death under the rubble, who failed to deliver aid is now terrified that we'll make a public statement here."

Pervin Buldan called on the officials of Turkish Red Crescent and the political administration to resign, and criticized the Turkish president who recently asked for the understanding of people for the government's delay in responding to the disaster, saying:

"Do not ask for understanding from anyone, because you've caused people to loose their lives. You've caused them to suffer from hunger and cold, and not a single official has yet resigned even at the end of 22 days. We make this call yet again: Red Crescent's president and senior officials, the ministers in the president's cabinet, the president himself, and their partners, they all should resign."