A week after the deadly earthquakes that struck Türkiye's south and southeastern region and caused widespread loss of life and infrastructure damage, aid materials from dozens of countries from all around the world continue to arrive via land and air.
Aid materials sent by land from European countries enter the country through the Kapıkule and Hamzabeyli border gates on the country's border with Bulgaria, and the Ipsala Border Gate near Greece.
Customs officials told Demirören News Agency (DHA) that clothing and food have arrived via 528 vehicles, 286 of which were trucks, from many countries such as Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and especially from Germany, which has the largest community of Turkish citizens abroad.
Bosnia-Herzegovina, one of the countries that lead with numbers of volunteers and groups mobilized on the field in southeastern provinces, accounted for around 148 rescue teams as of Feb. 11; while both Bosnians and Turkish residing in the capital Sarajevo organized fund collections and the donation of equipment and clothes for Türkiye.
The International University of Sarajevo (IUS), owned by the Sarajevo Education Development Foundation (SEDEF) in the capital city of Bosnia-Herzegovina, has become the country's fundraising center. Volunteers from different ethnicities are working diligently to prepare packages to be sent to the earthquake victims.
Mehtap Özer-Isovic, who has been teaching English at the IUS for 15 years and working as a success counselor at the English Preparatory School, opened up to Anadolu Agency (AA) about the aid collected and their thoughts on the earthquake.
"After the earthquake in Türkiye, Turkish citizens and Turkish institutions in Sarajevo exemplified mobilization and joined hands. It was decided that the IUS gym could be used as a collection area for aid, due to its capacity and volume," said Özer-Isovic. Noting that IUS students and graduates show great solidarity in aid, he added that the number of volunteers has reached 250-300.
Meanwhile, groups of rescuers from other European countries, including Spain and Germany, continue to lend support in the earthquake-affected zone, cooperating with the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) and local authorities.
The captain of the Spanish Military Emergency Unit (UME) in the city of Gaziantep, which was struck by a major earthquake in Türkiye on Monday, praised the coordination with the Turkish disaster agency and local authorities as "great" during the rescue operations.
"The coordination with the AFAD and local authorities has been great. So with our reach-out procedure, we achieved a lot of goals," Capt. Juan Rodriguez Juste, part of a group of Spaniards sent to help Türkiye in the wake of Monday’s quakes, told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Meanwhile, efforts on the ground continued with the participation of 68 different countries, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
One rescue team from Germany returned to Frankfurt. The first convoy of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG), which went to Kahramanmaraş to support search and rescue efforts in Türkiye after the earthquakes, was greeted with flowers by Türkiye's Frankfurt Consul General Erdem Tuçer and other officials at Frankfurt Airport upon their return.
At the same time, some European countries have decided to ease visa procedures for victims to be hosted by relatives living across Europe. Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany have all initiated measures to facilitate visa applications of Turkish and Syrian citizens residing in their countries so that they can temporarily host their relatives, officials from the countries said.
On the other hand, the Canada-based Human Concern International (HCI), headquartered in Ottawa, which started its activities in 1979, collected CA$1.6 million ($1.20 million) for the earthquake victims.
Campaign coordinator Husam Helal told Anadolu Agency (AA) that after the news of the earthquake reached Canada, they and other Muslim communities and organizations immediately started working.
Last week, thousands of Turkish Canadians, devastated by the news of the disaster, headed to drop-off locations in various cities, including Toronto, Oakville, Hamilton, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa to collect aid and dispatch it to provinces in the southeast. The collected aid was mobilized in coordination with the Turkish Consulate and transferred to Türkiye via Turkish Airlines (THY) flights from various Canadian cities to Istanbul.
Developments relating to the role played by numerous Arab countries that have reached out to Türkiye since the first day of the earthquake also continue. These countries, which sent search and rescue teams to the earthquake-affected region, continue to support victims with both materials and cash aid, in addition to prayers, supplications and funeral prayers in absentia. Among the countries providing aid are Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iraq and Lebanon.
Apart from five planes carrying search and rescue teams to Türkiye, the Saudi King Salman Relief Organization (KS Relief) announced it sent seven planeloads of humanitarian aid, mainly medical supplies, to earthquake-affected areas. The materials brought by aircraft landed at Gaziantep Airport and were sent to the affected zones by trucks. KS Relief Undersecretary Samer Jiaily stated that they came to help brotherly Türkiye in its time of need.
''These planes have medical and technical equipment. We will send them to the field as soon as possible. There are also vehicles that our search and rescue teams will use. There are mainly humanitarian aid and medical supplies on our planes. We toured the field and came to the conclusion that such aid will continue. This air bridge will continue," Samer Jiaily noted on Sunday.
Jordan announced that two military planes containing 480 tents were bound for Adana and described the quakes as the "disaster of the century," according to written statements issued by the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that a further 10,000 tents would be sent intermittently.
Among the rescue teams that departed from the Asia-Pacific region, teams from China and South Korea spoke to reporters and conveyed their experiences relating to rescue operations.
Wang Yi, leading the Blue Sky Rescue Team (BSR) from China, with 185 members that arrived in Türkiye last Wednesday said that local translators proved to be "their eyes and ears," helping them overpass difficulties during draining rescue efforts in Malatya, one of the hard-hit provinces.
The rescue group from South Korea, working with 121 members and four dogs, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Monday that it is the biggest rescue operation they have ever undertaken abroad. Development Cooperation Director Won Do Yeon stated that they are on the ground in coordination with the Turkish government and AFAD, and will continue their work depending on the situation.
According to the latest figures, the earthquakes caused widespread damage and killed over 31,000 people in Türkiye’s south and southeast.
