Students in Iraqi Kurdistan donate thousands of dollars to Turkey victims

Students in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region gathered thousands of dollars in donations in a campaign for those affected by last week’s earthquake in Turkey.

Students at the International Maarif School in the Kurdish city of Erbil donated $15,000, the Turkish consulate posted on Twitter on Wednesday.

The consulate had set up a bank account for those wishing to donate to the millions affected in southeast Turkey from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

Uluslararası Maarif Okulları-Erbil öğrencileri, ülkemizde yaşanan deprem sonrasında başlattıkları bağış kampanyasında topladıkları 15 bin ABD Dolarını, Başkonsolosluğumuzun deprem yardımları için açılan hesabına yatırdılar. pic.twitter.com/rQ1o6vUEbl

— T.C. Erbil BK (@ErbilBK) February 15, 2023

More than 41,000 have so far died in Turkey and neighbouring Syria and the death toll is expected to keep climbing as search teams dig through the rubble.

Director of the Lavin Elementary School for Girls in Erbil told Anadolu Agency that students participated by donating clothes, blankets, stoves and cash.

Other campaigns took place in the northern Duhuk governorate, while in the Sulaymaniyah governorate donations were made via a telethon.

Turkey and northern Iraq’s Kurdistan have long shared bitter ties.

The armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has for decades fought for autonomy in Turkey and is mostly based in the mountains of the far north of Iraq in the autonomous Kurdistan region.

Several countries around the world have sent financial aid and personnel to help in search and rescue efforts in Turkey. The estimated cost of physical damage is expected to be around $85 billion.