Bosnia and Herzegovina's foreign minister said Friday that Bosnians will stand with Türkiye which has been devastated by two strong earthquakes.
“Stay strong, we pray for you, we are with you. We will stand together in this terrible disaster. You have proven once again how great the Turkish nation is,” Elmedin Konakovic told Anadolu in Hatay province.
Konakovic said it was difficult to talk after what he witnessed in Hatay, one of the most affected regions by the quakes.
"I have never seen anything like this before. I was a soldier in the Bosnian army during the war … but I was shocked for the first time,” he said.
He said more than 200 first responders working in the region did an excellent job and noted that they rescued 26 people from the rubble.
"We are not a very powerful or big country but Bosnians have a big heart and our people once again showed that they are with the Turkish people in this crisis,” he said, adding that 50 humanitarian aid trucks are headed to quake victims.
Konakovic said a 12-year-old boy is trying to help victims by selling tea on the street – an act that proved how Bosnians reacted very quickly to the disaster.
Benjamin Mehanovic who lives in the capital, Sarajevo, is selling tea to help Turkish and Syrian quake-hit victims. It is a gesture the Turkish foreign minister has praised.
At least 38,044 people have been killed by the two strong quakes that jolted southern Türkiye on Feb. 6, the country's disaster agency said Friday.
The 7.7- and 7.6-magnitude quakes were centered in Kahramanmaras and struck 10 other provinces -- Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Elazig and Sanliurfa. More than 13 million people have been affected by the devastating quakes.
Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the tremors that struck in the space of less than 10 hours.
Source: Anadolu Agency