"Every life we rescued from under the rubble renewed our hopes as a nation," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says during key handover ceremony of post-earthquake houses in Kahramanmaras province.Erdogan stated that Türkiye conducted the largest search and rescue operation in history with the participation of more than 35,000 professional personnel from within the country and abroad.
"We were faced with a disaster scene that started from Kahramanmaras in the centre of the earthquake, extending from Malatya to the border of Kayseri on one side, and reaching Adiyaman, Gaziantep, Osmaniye, and Hatay on the other. In fact, the destructive impact of the earthquake was continuing beyond our borders," the president highlighted.
"We ensured that search and rescue carried out uninterrupted by transferring 20,000 vehicles and machinery, 141 helicopters, 182 planes, and 23 ships to the region."- Over 650,000 search & rescue personnel were deployed in quake-hit regions