Erdoğan thanks countries pledging help to Turkey

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has thanked countries and organizations which pledged support and assistance to Turkey in its bid to put out continuing wildfires in its southern areas.

“I thank, on behalf of my nation, all friendly countries and organizations that extended their support, get-well wishes and condolences, voiced their readiness to help and provided aid in our fight against the forest fires,” Erdoğan said on Twitter on Aug. 3.

“We will inshallah overcome these difficult times as soon as possible,” he said after a meeting at the coordination center tasked to tackle the forest fires. Erdoğan, on a separate Twitter message, singled out Azerbaijan, Russia and Spain and specifically thanked leaders of these countries that sent planes to Turkey for fighting the forest fires.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu informed that Turkey contacted all countries which expressed their intentions to send help to the country’s fight against the fires. He informed his conversation with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias as he explained that Athens had to withdraw its pledge of support to Turkey after fires sparked in their own country. “I want to thank Greece for contacting us,” he stated.

Turkey has never witnessed such a big wildfire, Çavuşoğlu said, “As we helped other countries in similar tragedies, we won’t be hurt by the offer of help from other countries. This is not a matter of pride.”