The highly effective twin earthquakes which hit southern Türkiye this week had been 3 times stronger than the foremost 1999 Marmara earthquake within the nation’s northwest, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated on Saturday.
“They were three times more powerful and destructive than the 1999 earthquake, which was recorded as the biggest disaster in our country’s history,” Erdoğan stated within the southeastern Diyarbakir province, a quake-hit space he’s visiting to examine search and rescue efforts.
“They are also recorded to be much larger and more destructive disaster than the 1939 Erzincan earthquake,” he added.
The Erzincan quake in japanese Türkiye took some 33,000 lives, whereas the 1999 Marmara earthquake took some 18,000.
Erdoğan later visited Şanliurfa and stated not less than 21,848 individuals have been killed and 80,104 others injured because the twin earthquakes, centered in Kahramanmaraş province, hit southern Türkiye on Monday.
“Currently, 160,000 personnel are working in 10 provinces, together with teams from abroad,” stated Erdoğan, who additionally met with quake victims in Diyarbakir and Sanliurfa.
The magnitude 7.7 and seven.6 earthquakes affected greater than 13 million individuals throughout 10 provinces, together with Hatay, Gaziantep, Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.
Saying that seven out of 320 broken buildings in Diyarbakir utterly collapsed, Erdoğan added that not less than 255 individuals died and 901 others had been injured.
The Turkish chief additionally expressed gratitude to all “friendly” nations for exhibiting solidarity with the Turkish nation by sending search and rescue groups after the quakes.
Erdoğan earlier pledged to rebuild the quake-hit area as a part of a yearlong plan.
“We plan to rebuild hundreds of thousands of houses, including their infrastructure and superstructure, and restore our cities damaged by earthquakes,” he stated.
The authorities, he stated, has mobilized “all the means,” and urged everybody to “trust and believe that we did not and will not leave our citizens on the streets in misery or poverty.”
During a go to to Şanliurfa, Erdoğan stated the Turkish authorities is getting ready applications “to relieve the suffering of our earthquake victims and make their life easier.”
“460,000 of our citizens are accommodated in schools, dormitories, practice hotels, and teacher’s houses affiliated with the National Education Ministry. There are 1.1 million people in temporary accommodation centers,” he stated.
The Turkish president additional pressured that they’ve encountered “many obstacles that exceeded human will” through the course of catastrophe and added: “There have been some delays and disruptions in some areas, but no one can deny the sincere struggle of our state to stand by our citizens struck by earthquake.”
On Twitter, Erdoğan thanked the “teams and volunteers for working selflessly despite freezing temperatures, lack of sleep, and many other difficulties.”
“No matter how great our pain is, I sincerely believe we will overcome all obstacles by standing together as a state and a nation,” he added.
Separately, the Turkish and Azerbaijani overseas ministers held a press convention in Kahramanmaraş, the quakes’ epicenter.
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu accompanied Jeyhun Bayramov, who’s the primary overseas minister to go to Türkiye within the wake of the devastating quakes.
Saying that Azerbaijan was the primary nation to reply Türkiye’s name for assist, Çavuşoğlu stated, quoting a normal saying: “This is an indication that we are two states, but one nation, and that our joy and destiny are the same.”
Noting that there are 900 search and rescue personnel from Azerbaijan within the earthquake-hit areas, the Turkish overseas minister stated the variety of individuals rescued by the Azerbaijani search and rescue groups just lately rose to 50.
On worldwide assist, Çavuşoğlu stated not less than 99 nations have thus far supplied assist.
“Currently, teams from 68 countries are on the ground. There are personnel from 8,326 friendly countries in total,” he stated including that 1,563 others from 13 nations might be dispatched to Türkiye later Saturday.
More than 20 nations supplied Türkiye to ascertain 23 subject hospitals, Çavuşoğlu stated, including that these services are “the best equipped.”
“The number of countries with active hospitals is eight, and there are 10 field hospitals in total at the moment,” he added.
For his half, Bayramov hailed the ties between Türkiye and Azerbaijan and vowed to face in solidarity with Türkiye and the Turkish nation always.
Saying that everybody in Azerbaijan was additionally struck by the lethal quake, Bayramov stated not less than 5 Azerbaijani residents had been killed when the earth shook.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
