Jakarta, The Indonesia Post – The Indonesian government will distribute humanitarian aid to Turkey to help victims of the big earthquake in the country led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“The assistance is being prepared by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and also by the Ministry of Social Affairs. It has just been prepared and will be sent as soon as possible, this morning we are still looking for the plane,” said President Joko Widodo in a press statement at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Tuesday.
On a separate occasion, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin also conveyed the matter of humanitarian assistance to Turkey. “In Turkey, when we had a tsunami in Aceh, he was the first to help. Therefore, earlier we also spoke with the Minister of Defense Prabowo, we will immediately send an assistance mission to (Turkey),” said the Vice President after visiting the Java Integrated Industrial Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and Industrial Port Estate (JIIPE), in Gresik, East Java, Tuesday.
The Vice President emphasized that humanitarian assistance is part of Indonesia’s international responsibility, where in this world every country should have to help one another when a disaster occurs. “In this world, we must help each other. It has become a humanitarian tradition and I hope that later Baznas will also take part in that,” he said.
Meanwhile, based on information from the Indonesian Ambassador to Turkey Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the first phase of humanitarian assistance to help victims affected by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked southern Turkey was distributed on Monday (6/2).
The aid package in the form of a container of food will be handed over by Ambassador Iqbal and the Indonesian Embassy in Ankara who are on their way to Gaziantep, about six hours’ drive from Ankara.
“Currently I and the Indonesian Embassy team are moving to Gaziantep to provide humanitarian assistance in the form of a container of food from the Indonesian government to be handed over to the Turkish Red Crescent (Turkish humanitarian organization),” said Ambassador Iqbal in a virtual press conference in Jakarta, Tuesday.
Iqbal said that the food items sent were instant foods accompanied by portable gas stoves and gas cylinders.
Apart from food, the Indonesian Embassy in Ankara has also prepared around 300 blankets for Indonesian citizens who choose to stay in shelters.
Thousands of people were reportedly killed and tens of thousands injured in 10 provinces in Turkey due to two large earthquakes that rocked the southern region of the country, Monday (6/2).
On Monday morning, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province and shook a number of other provinces, including Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Adana, Adiyaman, Malatya, Ormaniye, Hatay and Kilis.
Then at 13.24 local time (17.24 WIB) an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 centered in the Elbistan Kahramanmaras district shook the region. (mhn/bbs)
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