Last units of Azerbaijani rescue team depart from Türkiye's Kahramanmaras

By Izzet Mazi

KAHRAMANMARAS (AA) - The last units of Azerbaijani search and rescue teams that arrived in southern Türkiye, hit by powerful quakes last month, left the province of Kahramanmaras.

"The Azerbaijani state and the people of Azerbaijan are always with Türkiye. As our President (Ilham Aliyev) said after the wrecks were removed, the Azerbaijani state will stand by the Turkish state and its brothers in the construction of these cities," head of the Azerbaijani Emergency Situations Ministry team Muharrem Hasanov told Anadolu.

Hasanov said they immediately reached Türkiye following the earthquakes and began contributing to search and rescue operations with 760 personnel in the southern Kahramanmaras and Hatay provinces.

During this process, Hasanov said they managed to rescue 53 people from under the rubble, and thanked the Turkish people for their support to the Azerbaijani team.

"There were foreign teams here, but we were not treated as one of those teams. The warmth of people here made us have this feeling. I am grateful to the Turkish people for always supporting us," Hasanov noted.

More than 46,100 people were killed in Türkiye by earthquakes that struck on Feb. 6, according to officials.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes, centered in Kahramanmaras, rocked 11 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazig, and Sanliurfa.

Around 13.5 million people in Türkiye have been affected, as well as many others in northwestern Syria.