The host leader expressed his thanks to domestic and international search and rescue teams, including one from the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence, during his February 20 field trip to Antakya, the capital of Hatay province, one of the localities hardest hit by the natural disaster.
Erdogan noted his gratitude to foreign countries for their emergency aid and dispatch of search and rescue forces to Turkey, stressing that the earthquake has revealed the importance of international solidarity and Turkey will forever keep in mind the friendship.
As of February 20, the Vietnam People’s Army team had searched 31 locations in Antakya, helping discover 15 sites with victims trapped under the rubble, including two places with signs of survivors. They handed over the sites to the local rescue force to bring 28 dead bodies out./.
