Greek rescuers praise quake survivors in Turkish province for welcoming them wholeheartedly

By Ahmet Gencturk and Deryaz Gulnaz Ozcan

ATHENS (AA) – The first batch of Greek rescuers who returned to their country after a relief mission in the quake-stricken Turkish province of Hatay praised the local survivors for the warm welcome they received.

“Despite all the hardships they’ve had to endure, the Turkish people gave us a very friendly welcome and treated us as family members,” said one of the rescuers during a press conference.

“When we had to take breaks, the people approached us to offer hot tea, biscuits, sweets and bread,” he said.

“When they learned we were Greeks, they opened their arms wide and embraced us,” he added.

The rescuer said they did what they should as neighbors.

“From our experience, we know that in a disaster, you first ask for help from your next-door neighbor and then from the rest of the wider neighborhood.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Katsaniotis, who is in charge of coordinating Greek humanitarian aid to Türkiye, announced on Twitter that a truckload of aid collected by the Athens chapter of the Greek Scout Corps had left during the day for Türkiye and another batch of aid collected in the northern port city of Thessaloniki will depart on Feb. 17.

A ship loaded with 1,000 tons of food, medicine and at least 200 large bags of clothes will depart Wednesday from the port city of Piraeus.

At least 35,418 people were killed by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye on Feb. 6, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 tremors last week were centered in Kahramanmaras and struck nine other provinces – Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa. More than 13 million people have been affected by the devastating quakes.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the space of less than 10 hours.