First Lady Emine Erdoğan sent a letter to First Lady Melania Trump of the United States, calling on her to extend the same sensitivity to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as she has shown toward the war in Ukraine.
In her letter, First Lady Emine Erdoğan said:
"I send you my warmest greetings, respectfully and with deep affection.
Your heartfelt words and gracious hospitality during our meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., remain vivid in my mind six years later. I still recall our private dinner and walk in the garden, where I felt that you are keenly conscientious of the pressing issues of our time. I witnessed this moral sensitivity reflected once again in the letter you recently addressed to Mr. Putin, President of the Russian Federation. Your words gave voice to humanity’s shared conscience, and I appreciate your stand deeply. As you pointed out in your letter, the right of children to grow up in a loving and safe environment is universal and beyond dispute. This right is the privilege of no particular geography, race, ethnic identity, religious group, or ideology. Standing by the oppressed who are deprived of this right is, first and foremost, the fulfilment of a great responsibility to our human family. Your sensitivity, particularly as the First Lady of the United States of America, to the lives destroyed, the families torn apart, and the children orphaned by the devastating effects of the war in Ukraine, is an initiative that inspires hope in people’s hearts.
Your call for restoring the joyful laughter of Ukrainian children “who have been forced to carry a quiet laughter” is profoundly meaningful. I have faith that the important sensitivity you have shown for the 648 Ukrainian children who have lost their lives in the war will be extended to Gaza as well, where, in the span of two years, 62,000 innocent civilians, including 18,000 children, have been brutally killed. Gaza is witnessing unprecedented cruelty; it is enduring the most tragic genocide of our time. The UN Children's Fund likens the surface of Gaza, where one child is killed every 45 minutes, to "hell" and the ground beneath Gaza to a "children’s graveyard." Could you ever have imagined that the term "unknown soldier," used for unidentified soldiers in wars, would one day be used for children? The words "unknown infant" inscribed on the shrouds of thousands of Gazan children who have nobody left behind and whose names cannot even be identified inflict irreparable wounds on our collective conscience. These children have been driven to psychological devastation, have completely forgotten how to smile, cry into microphones, saying they wish to die, and carry in their innocent hearts the exhaustion of a war which is impossible for them to cope with. In Gaza, history is recording small, orphaned children’s hair turning grey from the unspeakable pain and fear they constantly endure.
It is not only the children of Ukraine whose laughter is being silenced. The children of Palestine, too, deserve the same joy, the same freedom, and the same dignified future. It would be profoundly meaningful if you were to send a letter, echoing your strong call for an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, to Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. These days, when the world is experiencing a collective awakening and the recognition of Palestine has become a global will, I believe that your call on behalf of Gaza would fulfil a historic responsibility toward the Palestinian people. What is unfolding in Palestine goes beyond genocide: it is the imposition of an arbitrary international system where anyone and anything can be devalued for the sake of the interests and comfort of a few privileged. We must unite our voices and strength against this distorted order where the lives of children in some parts of the world are considered less valuable than others. We must defend the discredited rules of international law and our common human values, and unite around our shared principles. Only then can we “nurture the next generation’s hope,” who are driven day by day into despair in the face of this brutality. Only then can we speak of the possibility of restoring joy to children whose laughter has been silenced, and of a sustainable and lasting peace across the world.
As a mother, as a woman, and as a human being, I deeply share the sentiments expressed in your letter, and I hope that you will give the same hope to the children of Gaza, who also yearn for peace and tranquillity. It is already too late for the 18,885 Gazan infants and children who we have lost: like six-year-old Hind Rajab, killed by 335 bullets, and 3-year-old Reem, whose grandfather bid her farewell as he kissed her once cheerful, fading eyes. Yet, we still have a chance for more than one million Gazan children who have managed to survive.
Indeed, it is time.”
Meanwhile, the Presidency's Head of Communications, Burhanettin Duran, shared a post on his social media account regarding First Lady Emine Erdoğan's letter.
In his message, Head of Communications Duran said, "In her letter addressed to First Lady Melania Trump of the United States, First Lady Emine Erdoğan called on her to extend the same sensitivity to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as she has shown regarding the war in Ukraine and highlighted that Gaza is witnessing unprecedented cruelty; it is enduring the most tragic genocide of our time."