A high-profile delegation from Turkish Red Crescent visited Qatar Red Crescent (QRCS) recently to hold meetings with top QRCS officials and sign a framework agreement for further humanitarian co-operation.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed to scale up co-operation for two years, building upon a previous one that enabled presence of QRCS in Turkey to secure relief aid into Syria, with logistical support from the Turkish side.
The Turkish delegation was in Doha as part of the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to deepen bilateral diplomatic relations between the two nations.
The Turkish Red Crescent delegation consisted of the organisation’s president, Dr Kerem Kinik, and vice-president, Dr Naci Yorulmaz.
They were received by QRCS president, Dr Mohamed bin Ghanem al-Ali al-Maadheed, secretary-general Ali Hassan al-Hammadi, executive director Youssef Ahmed al-Hammadi and some heads of departments.
The meeting shed light on bilateral humanitarian relations and the current humanitarian picture across the region, particularly in war-torn Syria.
“Our partnership dates back to many years ago, but was formally documented only in 2009,” said Dr al-Maadheed. “Under the new MoU, we will materialise co-operation in the form of larger-scale humanitarian operations for those in need.”
He emphasised the common humanitarian grounds shared by both organisations through their work in conflict zones around the world. This, he claimed, required a higher level of co-ordination in the field to serve humanity.
“We work under the umbrella of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and we are best helped by the strong relations between Qatar and Turkey,” Dr al-Maadheed pointed out.
Dr Kinik noted, “We have been working with QRCS for many years in many regions, so we are very common in the same region and in the humanitarian sector as well, alleviating human suffering as we are taught by our religion. So, we are trying to provide fair humanitarian assistance for needy people everywhere, in Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, West Africa, like Qatar Red Crescent.
“QRCS is the strongest national society at the moment, with a lot of international programmes, offices and staff allocated for international humanitarian operations, like us. We are jointly acting in a lot of crises like the Syrian crisis, the Somali crisis and the Iraqi crisis. By this refreshment of the MoU, we would extend our strategic relationship globally and act jointly and allocate more manpower and financial power to our joint programmes. We will collaborate and co-operate according to this MoU globally.”
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