From the first moments of the earthquake, many Islamic countries showed a good example of solidarity and brotherhood by sending search and rescue and medical teams, aid organizations, and setting up tent cities and field hospitals.

The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government were among the first to help after the Kahramanmaraş-epicentered earthquake.

Yapıcıoğlu visited the tent city established by the Barzani Aid Foundation and the center established by the Islamic Republic of Iran as a field hospital for earthquake victims and later converted into a tent city.

Yapıcıoğlu was briefed about the services provided by the Kurdish and Iranian authorities in the tent cities and thanked them for their services

“From the first day of the earthquake, aid teams came to Turkey from many countries. Field hospitals and tent cities were established, and search and rescue teams arrived. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to them once again. Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan Region also sent aid teams. They established tent cities and field hospitals. Today we visited two different tent cities. One of them was founded by Iran, we asked about the condition of our citizens there,” Yapıcıoğlu said.

“Barzani Charity Foundation set up tents here. They stated that they had completed the construction of 200 new tents, they still have tents, and if a suitable place is shown, they have the capacity to set up some more tents,” he added.

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria in the early hours of the morning on February 6.

There were at least 44,300 deaths and over 108, 000 people were injured across the ten most affected provinces in Turkey, including some casualties also in adjacent Elazığ and Batman provinces.

At least 13.5 million people and 4 million buildings have been affected. Thousands were trapped under rubble when buildings collapsed.

The Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change conducted damage inspections for 763,000 buildings; at least 41,791 buildings in 10 Turkish provinces were heavily damaged or destroyed, leaving about 150,000 people homeless. (ILKHA)