Perhaps one needs to muster enough courage to describe the world’s worst natural calamity in recent history to hit Türkiye: the devastating earthquakes in the first week of February. Perhaps no statistical mechanism will be ever able to comprehend or quantify the exact width and breadth of the human and material loss this earthquake has incurred. It will take years, if not decades, to overcome the horror and despair of the terrible loss of those whose lives were cut short and the memories of those who evaded the fury of nature.

One cannot, of course, like its prediction, prevent the occurrence of a natural calamity but every nation can, given its economic capability, political will and infrastructural strength, help downscale the damage from unpredictable calamities like earthquakes. Such an appalling calamity also warrants immediate assistance and cooperation from the international community and this global action was very much visible in earthquake-hit Türkiye.

The pan-international support and cooperation were appreciated by the whole Turkish nation. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself hailed it by saying, "We will never forget your friendship." Today, no country or continent is lagging behind in extending support to this grieved nation, with some even setting aside their past acrimony. India is one of them.

Immediately after the newsflash of this horrible calamity, India’s Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan visited the Turkish mission in New Delhi and conveyed condolences on behalf of India and pledged support for the government of Türkiye in that hour of crisis. Soon the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, too tweeted, expressing his anguish over the loss of life and property and promised all possible assistance to Türkiye at this critical moment.

Operation Dost

Under Operation Dost (Friendship Operation), the Indian government not only sent a huge consignment of relief material, medicine and equipment but within 48 hours, rushed a 101-member rescue team to join the global rescue operation in the affected areas. Later India sent another batch of 50 rescuers to assist India's team already on the ground in the earthquake-affected region. India's team was part of the large-scale series of rescue, search and relief operations, including the search for survivors in a total of 35 worksites.

It is worth mentioning here that "dost" is both a Turkish and Hindustani word for friendship and this operation is aptly described as "Operation Dost." India quickly dispatched the team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to assist in the rescue operation. India has already sent six big flights full of relief materials, including C-17-Global masters. Under this operation, the Indian rescue team erected field hospitals with advanced and sophisticated X-ray facilities, labs, oxygen generation plants, cardiac monitors and surgical equipment in the worst-hit cities like Hatay in the southern part of the country. Indian rescue teams also visited the town of Gaziantep to provide disaster relief to those who had survived but needed immediate medical relief.

India's team also provided a 30-bed functional hospital with whole ventilator and operation theater facilities. The field and mobile hospitals during their 10-day stay catered to 4,000 patients round the clock and in this humanitarian operation, locals in the devastated towns extended full cooperation to the Indian rescue team. The team stayed in these towns for 10 days and worked day and night to attend to the thousands of patients who needed immediate medical aid. A few dog squads were also on the ground to locate victims beneath the rubble and the collapsed structures.

'We are with you'

The aid from India was not only confined to the level of government. There were efforts across the country when many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations, student bodies, as well as religious and charity organizations set up hundreds of camps in different cities small and big to mobilize funds, tents, blankets, cloths, sleeping backs and other consumables to be sent to earthquake survivors. The supplies were flown into Turkiye on a daily basis. Apart from these collective and organizational efforts, some individuals stepped up on their own to lend a hand, including Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) based business tycoon of Indian descent who won the hearts of the people when he donated 110 million rupees ($1.33 million) to rehabilitate the earthquake victims in Türkiye and Syria. The donor handed over the cheque to the UAE Red Cross Society and said that the amount will be utilized to provide medications and to relocate those who were rendered homeless after this devastation.

Here in India, people chose different methods to express their solidarity with the grieving Turkish people. Nearly 5,000 children from a city school based near the capital town of Delhi expressed their solidarity with both the victims and the survivors by writing their condolence message on the 72-meter-long (around 236.22-foot) card saying, "Stay strong" and "We are with you." This long card with thousands of conciliatory messages was later presented to the Turkish Ambassador to India, Fırat Sunel.

While many inside Türkiye are indulging in power politics at this terrible time and trying to make political gains amid this crisis, India on other hand stood with the government and the people of Türkiye, setting aside the past few years of diplomatic and political acrimony. The Indian rescue team reached the ground with a relief mission that evoked the wonderful memories of the past when in 1912, the great Indian freedom fighter, Dr. M. A. Ansari not only led a medical mission to Türkiye during the Balkan War but mobilized a huge fund to help the victims there. This relief mission has once again proven that India still clings to its traditional humanitarian values and fully adheres to the belief that no action is greater than the service to humanity and that a friend in need is a friend indeed.