Kızılay sends aid to Greek Orthodox Church
TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
14/4/2011
The Turkish Red Crescent Society (Kızılay) delivered an eight-ton relief package to the Greek Orthodox Church of Agia Triada, located in İstanbul’s Beyoğlu district, on Tuesday.
The packages will be distributed to the Greek Orthodox community in İstanbul as part of efforts to provide aid and relief to the community. The aid was provided to the church for it to dispense to the needy members of the Greek Orthodox community.
Kızılay Chairman Tekin Küçükali delivered a speech when handing over packages to the church in which he expressed the belief that all people were created by God and therefore discrimination on the basis of religion or ethnicity should not exist. He stated: “As a group we do not believe that pain has a religion, color or race. Pain is pain. The Turkish Red Crescent Society was established to prevent pain and suffering in our nation, and the donations that people living within this nation have given will be directed towards people who are the most in need. We also believe that through this charitable work we do will be appreciated by God.”
This marks the first time Kızılay has sent a relief package to a church. Father Dositheos Anağnostopulos, the spokesperson of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, also stated: “We all believe in one God. Our primary principle is for us to coexist with one another and solve our problems together.”
