'Example of good friendship', Turkish ambassador thanks India for support after the earthquake

Turkey's Ambassador to India Firat Sunel has thanked New Delhi for standing by Turkey in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake in his country. Speaking to WION's diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal, the envoy said Prime Minister Narendra Modi acted promptly and dispatched the relief teams. He also thanked India for being a friend in thetrying times.

Full interview:

Sidhant Sibal: What is the current situation in your country?

Firat Sunel: I just want to make my first comment, this is not just one earthquake there were two huge earthquakes, magnitude 7 and 7.6 and followed by almost 300 aftershocks. So, the damage is very big, because almost 14 million people are impacted in 10 cities. The devastation is huge, let me tell some actual numbers.

The death toll is almost 3000, more than 15000 injured and 4700 buildings collapsed in the region. So some airports are already closed in the region but other airports in neighbouring the region are open and we use it for humanitarian help.

Sidhant Sibal: Your government must be overwhelmed, if you can talk about the measures taken by your government.

Firat Sunel: Yes, thinking of the extent of the devastation, the size of the region, it is not an easy task. Two huge earthquakes in the same day. There are 15000 search and rescue teams including our health teams. More than 5000 military personnel are there, so are some sanitary facility toilets, bathrooms, field hospitals, crisis management team.

They have been working without any interruption since the first earthquake. We also have some foreign search and rescue teams. There are about 2700, with rescue dogs, out 65 countries in which India is also included.

Sidhant Sibal: How do you see Indian support in the aftermath of the earthquake?

Firat Sunel: We appreciate it. Yesterday I shared it on my Twitter account as well, we have common words in Hindi and Turkish. Dost means friend. In Turkish, there is a proverb, 'dost-dost kara günde belli olur', which means friend in need is a friend indeed. So the friends help each other when they are in need.You may recall, you were the first person to report about Turkey's medical aid in May 2021. During covid time Turkey sent two airplanes loaded with 45 tonnes of medical aid.

Now devastation ishuge in Turkeyand PM Narendra Modi gave immediate instructions to build a crisis centre and all relevant Indian authorities had a meeting yesterday. I was also there for cooperation, and this is an example of good friendship, and we really appreciate it so much.

India decided to send two planes, a search, and a rescue team. One of them left yesterday in the night-time and has arrived in the country two hours ago with 23 tonnes of equipmentand more than 50 search rescue personnel. They are in the region and havestarted their activities.

In one hour, a second plane is also going to Turkey, this is also a big military aircraft. This is also a huge help for Turkey. We appreciate it very much. We appreciate notonly the material help, but also for standing by Turkey.There are lot of messages from PM Modi to EAM Jaishankar.

Sidhant Sibal: It hasn't been very very easy for you as well, you had a sleepless night, coordinating here

Firat Sunel: Yes, you had the right expression, we had a sleepless night. We had to coordinate everythingwith relevant authorities in India and also in Turkey. Not only me, the whole embassy team as well as the Indian embassy in Turkey spent a sleepless night. They also chad to coordinate. I think we will have more sleepless nights to coordinate this.

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