Special Turkish cargo flight leaves Bangladesh with ‘friendly gifts’

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – A special Turkish cargo plane carrying “friendly gifts” and relief goods donated by the Bangladesh government and people on Sunday flew for the earthquake-ravaged Türkiye.

Sevki Mert Baris, Bangledesh Coordinator of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), told Anadolu that as they started receiving donations on Friday morning, Bangladeshi people turned out in large numbers to provide assistance as friendly gifts.

“It was not possible to send those items by only regular flights, so Turkish Airlines arranged this big-size special cargo flight,” he added.

He said nearly 100 tons of necessary items, including 1,900 tents, will reach the earthquake-hit Turkish people soon.

Keeping in mind the love and enthusiasm shown by Bangladeshi people, “we think that we have to arrange such more special cargo flights in future,” Baris noted.

Loading relief items into the cargo flight at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital Dhaka Sunday noon, Bangladeshi airport employees said every nation should help the victims of devastating earthquakes in Türkiye.

Speaking to Anadolu, one of them, Mohammad Yusuf, said: “The issue of Türkiye is completely different. Türkiye is the country that supported us instantly before any other nation during our all critical moments and crises.”

Bangladeshi people would never be tired of mobilizing necessary support for their fraternal Turkish people, he added.

“It is my great pleasure to be a part of this donation process at this national crisis of Türkiye and I wish that the country will be able to tide over this calamity soon,” Ejaz Kadry, an official with Turkish Airlines, told Anadolu standing in front of the cargo flight shortly before its departure.

For the third day on Sunday, scores of Bangladeshi nationals donated items at TIKA'S Bangledesh headquarters in the upscale diplomatic zone in Dhaka.

Besides, dozens of Bangladeshi nationals were found working at the TIKA office as volunteers to help the officials of the Turkish state-run agency handle the flood of donations that would continue till Feb. 20.

According to the latest figures, at least 24,617 people have been killed and over 80,000 others wounded after 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes struck 10 southern Turkish provinces within the space of a few hours on Feb. 6, affecting around 13 million people.

The earthquakes hit Kahramanmaras and nine other provinces, namely Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors.