Croatia stands in solidarity with Türkiye following the devastating earthquakes that hit the country’s southeast last week, Croatia’s Consul General Ivana Zerec said Friday.
"The very first day the Croatian government sent the National Rescue Team of 40 experts experienced in urban search and rescue operations together with 10 trained search dogs," Zerec told Daily Sabah.
"Our government also contributed financially, by sending 800,000 euros ($850,940) to the affected region. Donations of 170,000 euros were sent via Croatian Caritas and the Croatian National Football Federation made a donation of 20,000 euros," she added.
At least 38,044 people were killed by two strong earthquakes that shook southeastern Türkiye on Feb. 6, the country's disaster agency said early Friday.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes were centered in Kahramanmaraş and struck 10 other provinces, namely Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Elazığ and Şanlıurfa. Over 13 million people have been affected by the devastating quakes.
"On my behalf and on the behalf of my country I would like to express our deepest condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives in the earthquake and wish a speedy recovery to the injured ones," Zerec emphasized.
The consul general also mentioned that the Turkish Embassy in Zagreb is collecting humanitarian aid pouring in from different Croatian municipalities, private businesses, civil society and private donations.
Furthermore, Zerec highlighted that Croatian Foreign Minister Grlić Radman is in direct communication with Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. "We do our best to follow the situation properly in order to send the right assistance and help," the Croatian official affirmed.
"It shows that all of Croatia stands in solidarity with Türkiye. Our people remember well the help Türkiye sent us two years ago when Croatia was hit by the earthquake in the Petrinja region," Zerec added.
The Balkans is similarly prone to seismic activity and earthquakes are frequent.
A 6.4 magnitude quake on Dec. 29, 2020, in the Petrinja region of Croatia, near the capital Zagreb, killed seven people and destroyed hundreds of buildings and houses.
Zerec is also leading the Istanbul Consular Corps (ICC), which is a unique platform of 77 career consuls general and 74 honorary consuls general.
Elected in 2019 as the first female president of the ICC, which is one of the largest of its kind in the world, Zerec underlined that as diplomats they reacted on the principle "time is an asset."
"We took action within the first hours of the earthquake by sending the donation for bread via the Gaziantep Foundation, in the collaboration with Galatasaray ALUMNI, we focused on the aid for small children (food and diapers). In a few hours, we collected 100,000 TL among ourselves and sent it promptly to the region while simultaneously coordinating the help of our respective governments," she explained.
She added the ICC will continue to monitor the situation and coordinate its activities with colleagues from the Turkish Foreign Ministry's office in Istanbul.