Donations, Prayers Pour Into Turkish Mosque

Hulya Elevli has spent every day this week sorting through donations at the Diyanet Mosque in Quinnipiac Meadows while coordinating with earthquake refugees to help them find shelter in a house she owns in northern Turkey.

On Friday morning, the end of a restless week and the mere beginning of a coordinated response to the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that ravaged parts of Turkey and Syria and that has caused at least 23,000 fatalities, Elevli joined members of the mosque at 531 Middletown Ave. and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to speak up about the need that exists abroad and offer guidance to locals about how to help.

Blumenthal, backed by dozens of community members and framed by the Turkish flag to his right and the American flag to his left, called attention to the action taken by the federal government. That includes this country’s recent pledge to provide $85 million in humanitarian assistance to the impacted areas of Turkey and Syria. He also urged Connecticut residents to donate what they can to local organizations, such as the Diyanet Mosque. (Read here about how another Turkish New Havener, Kadir Catalbasoglu, raised over $10,000 for disaster aid this week through a fundraiser at his restaurant, Brick Oven Pizza.) 

“I will work and fight for any and all assistance — medical supplies, food, shelter, clothing,” Blumenthal stated on Friday. He pressed the importance of supporting both Turkey and Syria, the latter of the two he described as ​“obviously far from an ally,” during a ​“crisis that must be met by all humanity.” In the meantime, he said, everyone should ​“do whatever you can through relief organizations… if possible do it through local organizations like this one, who you know.”

Goods donated to the mosque, he said, ​“will reach Turkey within days, maybe even hours.”

Musa Ugulu, the secretary of the Middletown Avenue mosque, said that as Americans try to grapple with a disaster that the ​“world of T.V. and pictures can’t capture,” dropping off items like generators, tents, sleeping bags, warm clothes, hygiene products, diapers and medicine is key in supporting those across Turkey and Syria struggling to keep warm in the wreckage.

As hundreds poured into the mosque to pray Friday, many hauling garbage bags of goods along with them, the downstairs of the building was full of boxes on boxes of such donations ready to be shipped out and distributed by the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of Turkey (AFAD).

While the press conference took place outdoors on a particularly sunny and warm day, Ugulu reminded his audience that it is winter in Turkey and Syria, where ​“everyone is barefoot and without clothes in subzero temperatures.”

“Donate whatever you can,” he said. ​“Even a dollar makes a difference over there.”

Hikmet Aslan, the president of the Southern New England Turkish American Cultural Association, simply said: ​“We lost a lot of family and friends over there and we need help.”

Diyanet Mosque of New Haven President Haydar Elevli, meanwhile, recalled how New Haveners helped to rebuild the mosque itself years back through donations after someone intentionally set the Islamic place of worship on fire. Now, he said, it it time for New Haveners to rally once again for a cause a little further away than their own backyard.

Hulya Elevli, Haydar’s wife, was one of roughly 50 individuals gathered outside to observe the presser. For the past five days, she has primarily been busy inside the mosque trying to help her homeland.

She said that while her family immigrated to the United States more than 30 years ago, they still have a house in the province of Giresun, located in Northern Turkey that was not impacted directly by the earthquake, that they visit each year.

Right now, she is working to get families in need relocated to her home, such as an expecting mother she recently connected with who needs a place to stay before her baby is due next month. Elevli is also sorting through donations at the mosque from noon until nine at night each day to get goods sent to the scene as efficiently as possible.

“I’ve cried so many times, I don’t sleep,” she told the Independent. ​“I’m not changing my clothes because I’m thinking, ​‘They can’t change theirs over there.’”

“Then everyday I go home and I learn the number of deaths has gotten higher.”