Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

A meeting was held at the Şanlıurfa Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the participation of Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati, non-governmental organizations and Chamber/Commodity Exchange presidents regarding the works carried out after the earthquakes on February 6 in Kahramanmaraş.

In his speech at the meeting, Hisarcıklıoğlu noted that all organizations representing Türkiye's workers, employers, civil servants, tradesmen, merchants and industrialists, Bendevi Palandöken, President of the Confederation of Tradesmen and Craftsmen of Türkiye (TESK), Ergün Atalay, President of TÜRK-İŞ, Önder Kahveci, President of KAMU-SEN of Türkiye, Mahmut Arslan, President of HAK-İŞ, were present at the event.

Stating that these organizations represent approximately 65 million people of the country, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that the interests of these groups do not coincide with each other in normal times, but when it comes to the issue of the country, they act together by leaving aside their interests.

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that on the first day of the earthquake, they took action in the morning and met with the heads of organizations in the afternoon, and said:

We asked, ‘What can we do for our country’ and we set up a crisis desk. We took the vice president of AFAD with us and worked on what we could do. In this context, everyone is visiting the earthquake zone with their organization, and this is our fourth trip to the earthquake region. We made our first trip to the area for three days on February 10-12. Then we went to Adıyaman on February 17^th. We went to Elbistan on February 24^th. Today we will be in Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa and Kilis. As much as we could, everyone, all organizations, stood by our brothers and sisters in the region. We made these visits with tears flowing from our eyes. We, as a nation, know that when there is a problem in our country, 86 million people stick together. If we can achieve this bonding on good days, no one to stop us.”

Stating that they will go to Gaziantep tomorrow, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that together with the heads of 44 chambers and commodity exchanges, they will meet with Trade Minister Mehmet Muş tomorrow at noon in Gaziantep to convey the problems of the business world in the region.

Hisarcıklıoğlu, stating that they will meet with the Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum in Gaziantep in the evening, said, “We all the heads of the construction material sectors, heads of non-governmental organizations came together and made a statement on Saturday. Our friends have pledged that if there is no increase in our inputs, there will be no price increase until the earthquake houses are finished, until our brothers in the region have their construction.”