As the death toll in southeastern Turkey and Syria climbed past 40,000, Selahattin Şep, a multimedia contemporary artist who has become known locally for his Tigris Handmade handcrafted shoes, answered the call in his homeland.

“The situation is bad,” he said, reached last week. “We lost so many friends and family; millions of people are struggling. I am going to Turkey this Sunday to be there and help.”

Şep has set up a GoFundMe and is raising money to help channel food and other lifesaving measures to the people of this devastated region.

The craft that Şep has become known for in the East Bay has its origins in the very area that is at the center of the devastation. He is from Diyarbakir, a majority-Kurdish city located in southeastern Turkey near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. It would be the presumptive capitol of Kurdistan, if the Kurdish people had their own state. “I’m Kurdish, not Turkish,” he said, when interviewed last year for this paper. “Unfortunately we don’t have a country.”

Diyarbakir is a city which has grown dramatically in recent years, as the Turkish forces have depopulated Kurdish villages. In fact, much of the conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish separatist groups has played out in and around Diyarbakir.

The Yemeni shoe, the style made and sold by Şep’s company, has a 600-year history in the region — and it is one of the few products that have survived, effectively unchanged, for centuries.

Every year, Şep returns home to visit family and source materials — chiefly the leather, which he has dyed in one of three tanneries which have been dip-dying using traditional methods for over 3,000 years.

Even while living life in Bristol with his wife, Amanda Esons, and their children, Diyarbakir is never far from Şep’s heart. “The name means Land of Copper, there’s so much craftsmanship,” he said. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site with one of the world’s biggest fortresses and a 6km wall built between 367 and 375.

If you’ve been following rescue and recovery efforts since the 6th and are wondering how you can help, visit his GoFundMe page, where you can read Şep’s regular updates and contribute to his efforts.