“Greece was one of the first countries to respond to Turkey’s request for European assistance. We have a fire brigade unit crew in Hatay and I guess the photo of the 7-year-old girl is what was saved by the EMAK team,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis said speaking on CNN’s “Connect the World” show.
As the prime minister pointed out, “Greece has experience and knows that time is critical, so the teams must go out quickly to save people who are trapped under the buildings. The conditions are extremely difficult. In practice, we are talking about two separate, huge earthquakes. We are cooperating very well with the Turkish authorities, there is significant mobilisation from Turkey. The first priority is to rescue people trapped in buildings, and then the authorities will focus on housing, how to feed people who will not return to their homes, and then rebuilding.”
Regarding the current situation in Syria, Mr. Mitsotakis said that “there is no official interlocutor, so we have to work through international mediators. We will have difficult days ahead managing the short-term needs, we will help Turkey with the long-term consequences as well. My proposal will also be at the level of the European Council that any aid to Syria must be coordinated at the European level. It has nothing to do with geopolitics, nor with the recognition of any regime, but to save people in extremely difficult conditions. It is important that the negotiations for aid to Syria take place through the UN or the EU. We are not ready to have these bilateral negotiations with Syria. The situation is delicate. I cannot comment in detail.
“In these times, what is important is that we are neighbours and help each other in difficult times. We had a big earthquake in Turkey in 1999, and we helped, then we had a big earthquake and Turkey offered help. At the end of the day, it’s time to temporarily put aside our differences and deal with an emergency. We are in a geologically active part of the earth and we have to deal with the consequences. The peoples of Greece and Turkey are friends. We have political differences, but we have nothing to divide with the Turks. I can’t imagine a more powerful image than that of a Greek and a Turkish rescuer saving a 7-year-old girl,” the prime minister concluded.
