Red Crescent President Kerem Kınık resigned two days before the 14 May elections. The President of the Red Crescent, Kerem Kınık, who came to the agenda with the sale of tents after the February 6 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, resigned.
Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca was among those who invited Kerem Kınık to resign, who received a great reaction about the Red Crescent selling tents and blood after the earthquake.
Who is Kerem Kınık?
Kerem Kınık was born on July 8, 1970 in Malatya. Kerem Kınık, who completed his primary and secondary education in Istanbul, graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine in 1993. He completed his doctorate in Disaster Medicine at Bezmiâlem Vakıf University in 2019. Kınık, who also holds an honorary doctorate from Benadir University in Somalia, worked as a responsible physician in Amasya Provincial Health Directorate between 1993-1995, as assistant director in Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Health Directorate between 1995-1999, and as a national operating in the health and information technology sectors between 1999-2013. He worked as a founding partner and general manager in international companies. Between 2013-2015, he worked as the Rector's Advisor at Bezmialem Vakıf University. Kerem Kınık has been working as a faculty member and Head of Emergency and Disaster Management Department at the University of Health Sciences since 2016.
Kerem Kınık, who was elected as the President of Kızılay in 2016, has 3 children named Muhammed Furkan, Abdullah Harun and Fatima Zehra. He is fluent in English and intermediate in Arabic. Kınık plays Turkish folk music instruments and composes as an amateur.
Kınık, who has been a humanitarian aid volunteer in various organizations since his university years, worked as a volunteer physician during the Kosovo War and the Marmara Earthquake.
As the President of Doctors Worldwide, he carried out humanitarian aid activities in many conflict and disaster areas such as Pakistan, Palestine, Central Africa, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He has written many articles on humanitarian aid, immigration policies, development, humanitarian law and humanitarian diplomacy. He was a board member of the IFRC International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies until 2017, and was elected as the IFRC Vice President responsible for the Europe and Central Asia Region at the 6st IFRC Legal Meetings held in Antalya on 2017 November 21.
The General Assembly of the Red Crescent, in which Kınık was elected as the chairman, was held in 2016, but the closure of 750 branches of the Turkish Red Crescent, which had 617 branches before this general assembly, was a matter of debate. It was claimed that these branches were closed to prevent their delegates from voting in the election. The delegates of Kızılay, whose number of branches were reduced to 153 in closed branches, brought the matter to the judiciary. Ankara 9th Civil Court of Peace also decided to take Kızılay to the extraordinary general assembly. A trustee has been appointed to the institution. Ministry of Justice Counselor Mekan Sarıkaya, Kızılay Ankara Provincial Head Ahmet Hizanlıoğlu and Kızılay İstanbul Provincial Head İlhami Yıldırım were appointed as trustees. It was discussed at that time that the Istanbul Red Crescent Branch Head, İlhami Yıldırım, who was appointed a trustee, was the brother of former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, and that Yıldırım's relatives also served in Kızılay.
What happened in the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş?
In the earthquakes that took place in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023, the Red Crescent's delivery of aid to the region on the third day drew a reaction. Announcing that they have also held talks with Kızılay Çadır ve Tekstil A.Ş, which is a subsidiary of Kızılay, the officials of the non-governmental organization Ahbap Association signed the contract for the tents they learned had 3 tents and bought them for 2050 million TL. The main problem here was that the tents, which were supposed to be delivered to the disaster victims free of charge and quickly by the Red Crescent, were still in storage after the 46rd day and sold them, creating a great reaction against the Red Crescent. Kerem Kınık claimed that the sale took place without his knowledge and said that the fees for the tents could be sent back to Ahbap.