Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP
Eurasia
25/08/2025 14:33
First Lady of Türkiye Emine Erdoğan has sent a letter to U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, calling on her to use her influence to help end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The letter, reported in Turkish and international media, appeals for decisive steps to stop the bloodshed that has "claimed 62,000 lives—including 18,000 children—over the past two years."
Referencing Mrs. Trump’s recent call for the protection of Ukrainian children affected by war, Mrs. Erdoğan wrote: “The right of every child to grow up in a loving and safe environment is universal and beyond dispute. Standing by the oppressed who are deprived of this right is a responsibility we owe to humanity.”
Emine Erdoğan urged the U.S. First Lady to take a symbolic yet significant step by addressing a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, echoing her strong call for an end to the war in Ukraine.
“Your voice, calling for an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, would fulfill a historic responsibility to the Palestinian people,” she said, noting that Gaza is now “a children’s graveyard,” where one child dies every 45 minutes.
She described the tragedy in stark terms: “Could you ever have imagined that the term ‘unknown soldier,’ once used for fallen soldiers, would today be replaced by ‘unknown infant’? Thousands of Gazan children lie in shrouds marked with those words because no family remains to identify them.”
Emphasizing that time is running out, Erdoğan concluded: “It is already too late for the thousands of children we have lost, but we still have a chance for the more than one million Gazan children who have survived. Indeed, it is time.”
The First Lady also called for global unity to defend international law and shared human values: “Only then can we restore joy to children whose laughter has been silenced and build a sustainable and lasting peace.”
