Write to your MP

We ask all community members and compassionate humans to write to your MP and local members asking that they write to the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia, urging Turkey to:

1. Allow donated items to pass through borders with no bureaucratic obstacles.

2. To ensure adequate support is provided to all victims of the earthquakes and all areas regardless ethnicity or perceived political leanings.

Step 1:

copy, paste, and send the below-detailed email to your MP. IMPORTANT: add your MP’s full name at the beginning and add your details at the end of the email.

Dear ___[MP Name]___

I am writing to you about the earthquakes that have taken place in Turkey, Syria, and surrounding countries.

As you will agree, Turkey is facing one of its greatest challenges in decades. Thousands have died in the space of a few days, and many thousands more are severely injured, remain buried under rubble, or are otherwise under extremely difficult circumstances and risking death in the freezing temperatures. There is a critical lack of shelter and food and other life saving resources.

Several Kurdish, Alevi, and Turkish speaking community centers across Australia have quickly mobilised and raised funds to aid the victims of the earthquake. We have coordinated with our sources and local agencies on the ground to purchase and deliver necessities such as blankets, clothing, tents, baby food and drinking water.

Sadly, we have received verbal reports backed by video footage vehicles carrying aid items collected by our organisations have been turned away at Turkey’s borders. Our volunteer drivers have stated that donated items have been turned away at borders due to an alleged lack of paperwork and bureaucratic obstacles. We have since also seen video footage clearly demonstrating these instances.

We are also receiving alarming reports from family members and community organisations in Turkey that some areas are not receiving adequate support with no search and rescue team visits in their neighbourhoods since the earthquake. These are predominantly Kurdish areas, where we are sadly seeing official government support witheld, raising strong suspicions that the response to these tragedies is heavily politicised, at the expense of countless human lives . Their neighbourhoods have not received any aid - tents, sleeping bags, food, or other essential aid.

We are told by our family members and local community groups that the areas which have been left out are predominantly ethnic and religious minority areas such as Alevi and Kurdish areas.

I ask that you write to the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on my behalf so that she may make representations to her counterparts in the Republic of Turkey. Please ask that she presses for aid to freely pass into Turkey with no bureaucratic obstacles.

Further, and especially, ask that ethnic and religious minority areas receive adequate support from the government of Turkey. Earthquakes impact all citizens, regardless of creed, religion, or language.

Thank you for taking the time to read my email.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

_______[your name_______

______[your address]______

Step 2:

Check that you are sending your email to the correct MP. You can find your MP’s email contact details on this website here (just type your postcode into the search field):

https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian_Search_Results?q=&mem=1&par=-1&gen=0&ps=0

Step 3:

Post on social media and tag your MP stating that you have emailed them asking for their support for the victims of the #TurkeyEarthquake.