Türkiye to never forget solidarity by int'l community over quakes: Erdoğan

BRUSSELS

Türkiye will never forget the solidarity displayed by European Union, United Nations, and other international organizations after the deadly Feb. 6 earthquakes, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on March 20.

“We will never forget the solidarity displayed by the EU, the U.N., and other international organizations with its institutions, member, and candidate countries in these difficult days,” Erdoğan said, addressing the International Donors’ Conference hosted by the EU to raise funds for quake-hit Türkiye and Syria.

“The International Donors’ Conference is another example of how well-grounded relations between our peoples are,” Erdoğan said.

Türkiye is in solidarity with the Syrian people after the quakes and Ankara provides necessary facilitation for third parties to transfer humanitarian aid to the quake-hit neighboring country, he stated.

The president noted that the cost of destruction caused by the earthquake will reach approximately $104 billion.

“It is not possible for any country to fight against such a disaster alone,” he stated.

The number of collapsed, immediately destroyed, severely damaged, or uninhabitable buildings in 11 provinces hit by earthquakes has reached 298,000, and the number of independent units is 876,000.

The Turkish government will rebuild and revive all the cities destroyed in the earthquake with their infrastructure, superstructure, workplaces, and historical and cultural values, Erdoğan emphasized.

“Our goal is to build enough buildings to meet the needs of the earthquake zone in one year. In the first year, we plan to deliver 319,000 houses out of a total of 650,000,” he said.

Simultaneously, the government continues to install tent cities, container cities and prefabricated buildings, and half a million people will be placed after installing 108,000 containers in two months, Erdoğan noted.