IMPORTANT LETTER FROM FIRST LADY EMİNE ERDOGAN TO FIRST LADY MELENİA TRUMP

*Letter from First Lady Emine Erdoğan to First Lady Melania Trump regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza*

- “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.”
- “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.”

First Lady Emine Erdoğan, the spouse of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, sent a letter to First Lady Melania Trump, the spouse of U.S. President Donald Trump, calling on her to extend the same sensitivity to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as she has shown regarding the war in Ukraine.

In her letter, which begins with warmest greetings and respect to Mrs. Melania Trump, First Lady Emine Erdoğan noted that her heartfelt words and gracious hospitality during their meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., remained vivid in her mind six years later.

Stating that she felt that First Lady Melania Trump was keenly conscientious of the pressing issues of our time during their private dinner and walk in the garden, First Lady Emine Erdoğan noted this moral sensitivity reflected once again in the letter Mrs. Trump recently addressed to Mr. Putin, President of the Russian Federation.
“Your sensitivity to the children orphaned is an initiative that inspires hope in people’s hearts.”

First Lady Emine Erdoğan remarked that Mrs. Trump’s words gave voice to humanity’s shared conscience and that she appreciates this stand deeply and said:
“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.”

- “Could you ever have imagined that the term "unknown soldier," used for unidentified soldiers in wars, would one day be used for children?”

Highlighting the fact that Gaza is witnessing unprecedented cruelty, it is enduring the most tragic genocide of our time, First Lady Emine Erdoğan said, “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.”

- “Call to Send a Letter to Netanyahu for Gaza”

Stating that it is not only the children of Ukraine whose laughter is being silenced, and the children of Palestine, too, deserve the same joy, the same freedom, and the same dignified future, First Lady Emine Erdoğan said, “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.”

- “We must unite our voices and strength against this distorted order”

Describing what is unfolding in Palestine as more than a genocide but 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, First Lady Emine Erdoğan called on to unite their voices and strength against this distorted order where the lives of children in some parts of the world are considered less valuable than others.

First Lady Emine Erdoğan underlined that they must defend the discredited rules of international law and our common human values, and unite around our shared principle, and said:
“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.”