KASTAMONU, Turkey
The Turkish Red Crescent on Monday launched a campaign to provide aid to Turkmen who have fled their homes due to the conflict in northern Iraq.
“There are about 125,000 Iraqi Turkmen in the Tal Afar desert awaiting our help,” the relief agency's head Ahmet Lutfi Akar told Anadolu Agency.
He said that as well as ordinary Turks being able to donate supplies, the campaign hopes to include banks, businesses and newspapers to participate.
With the support of the Turkish Confederation of Trade Unions (Turk-Is) and the Confederation of Public Servants' Trade Unions (Memur-Sen), the Red Crescent will send the donated products.
He added: “We want our nation to help Iraqi Turkmen brothers.”
Thousands of Iraqi Turkmen have fled to other regions, mainly under Kurdish control, following the seizure of several cities by militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
ISIL seized the city of Mosul on June 10 and went on to capture other cities in northern and western Iraq, advancing towards the capital Baghdad.
The Turkish Red Crescent sent nine trucks in its first convoy carrying food packages, blankets, kitchen sets and beds. The relief agency's second convoy, carrying tents, water and food, is to arrive in Iraq later this week.
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