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KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will visit earthquake-hit Turkiye as an act of solidarity with its people and the republic's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had earlier called the Tambun MP for additional support.
Anwar said he will lead the Malaysian delegation along with Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir to show their moral support for the Turkish republic.
“I have made the decision after receiving a call from (the Turkish president). I thought to myself that as friends, we must provide moral support not just to him (Erdogan) as president but to their people as well,” he told the press in Parliament today.
Malaysia had earlier committed two Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team squads to disaster relief efforts.
This follows the strong 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit southern Turkiye and northwestern Syria on Monday, claiming thousands of lives in both countries. The effects of the earthquake were also reportedly felt in Cyprus and Lebanon.
The death toll from the devastating earthquake in southern Turkiye has risen to at least 7,108, while the number of injured is 40,910 people thus far.
On Tuesday, Turkiye declared a three-month state of emergency in 10 provinces – Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurf – to ensure the smooth running of search-and-rescue missions. – The Vibes, February 14, 2023
