Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Saturday confirmed that the International Donors Conference to help the victims of the Feb. 6 earthquakes had been rescheduled for March 20.
“This conference will take place on Monday, March 20, with the joint initiative of the European Union and the bloc’s term president Sweden,” Çavuşoğlu told reporters during a news conference in the Malatya province as he and other ministers toured the disaster region to coordinate ongoing recovery efforts.
Nearly 48,000 people were killed and at least 115,000 others were injured in Türkiye’s 11 provinces after magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes leveled thousands of buildings on Feb. 6.
The conference, initially scheduled for March 16, was proposed by Sweden earlier in February to coordinate aid for the displaced and reconstruction of Türkiye’s devastated disaster zone.
“President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan too will be attending via video conference,” Çavuşoğlu informed.
According to the minister, the conference will host EU member states, other nations and various international organizations.
According to initial estimates by the Turkish government, the earthquake could cost Türkiye no less than $50 billion (TL 944.50 billion) and could top $100 billion with indirect spending.
All proceeds from the donor conference will be gathered to meet the impacted region’s needs in the short run.
High-level attendance is expected for the conference.
Çavuşoğlu further revealed he was “touched” by the mobilization of relief teams sent by countries worldwide after the disaster.
“The German foreign minister’s praise at the G-20 summit for the coordination in Türkiye pleased us. Of course, we may have deficiencies and errors, but this ambitious effort of all our state institutions in the face of such a massive disaster is truly praiseworthy,” Çavuşoğlu noted. “Those arriving from overseas, too, recognize this.”
All foreign teams that arrived to help with rescue teams have returned home, but 12 countries maintain their presence in the earthquake zone with field hospitals, Çavuşoğlu also said, adding that a total of 211,000 tents have been brought in for the displaced so far. Another 4,160 containers arrived from overseas, with 4,000 more scheduled to be shipped this week.
