ANKARA, Feb 15 Turkish Ambassador to Moscow Mehmet Samsar reported , that 80 tons of humanitarian aid was sent from Russia to the needs of the disaster zones in Turkey and more than one million dollars were transferred.
«To date, 80 tons of humanitarian aid have been sent from Russia to the needs of the disaster zone in Turkey and more than $1 million has been transferred,» Anadolu agency quotes Samsar as saying.
The Turkish diplomat recalled that already on the first day of the disaster, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
“Putin called the Turkish leader and expressed his condolences, and also announced that the necessary assistance had been sent. As part of these initiatives, the Russian departments took immediate measures and on the very first day sent a search and rescue group of 150 people, as well as an airmobile hospital with a medical team, by three planes «, — said the diplomat.
Samsar, noted that on the same day, an aircraft was sent to Turkey through the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations to extinguish a fire in the port of Iskenderun.
According to him, on the second day of the earthquake, the second echelon of an airmobile group of 50 people took off on two planes. In general, until today, about 350 specialists from the Russian Federation, including search and rescue teams and doctors of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Russian Ministry of Defense, were in the disaster zone in Turkey, the ambassador stated.
He noted that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation also sent assistance to the affected regions of Turkey.
«Two days ago, the Russian Ministry dispatched 500 tents, 9,000 sleeping bags and 9,000 beds by two planes. The EMERCOM of the Russian Federation also provided assistance the day before, including over a hundred winter tents, as well as other Russian regions, such as Bashkortostan, Yakutia and Dagestan,» Samsar said.
Earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 occurred on February 6 with an interval of 9 hours in the province of Kahramanmaras in southeastern Turkey. The tremors, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were felt in 10 provinces of the country and neighboring states, of which Syria suffered the most. According to the latest data, more than 35 thousand people died as a result of the disaster, more than 105 thousand were injured.