The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) ran to the rescue of earthquake victims in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Tuesday in response to accusations that the military had been deployed "too late" in the country’s southeastern provinces.

"In addition to the Defense Ministry, the control centers of the General Staff, land, naval and air forces swiftly requested a report from their units at 4:30 a.m. and the TSK's Humanitarian Aid Brigade Command was ordered to be on standby," Akar told reporters from Hatay, one of the worst-hit cities by the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude tremors on Feb. 6.

"No time was lost. All ministry and TSK elements have mobilized from the very first moment and they continue working tirelessly and in coordination with all relevant organizations to help our nation recover from this catastrophe," Akar stressed.

The minister lamented the slew of allegations against Turkish forces about "being late" to intervene, saying it would be "more useful if people were to offer better solutions rather than censure."

"A lot of people are on the ground, striving to help heal wounds and rapidly compensate for shortages of medical services, food and shelter. If there is more to be done, they should show us a way but the attitude we face is more destructive than constructive," Akar argued.

"The weather was terrible and all the roads were blocked. You cannot teleport people in such a circumstance. Some people purposefully misunderstood the situation because otherwise, it’s impossible to not understand, especially after coming here and witnessing the scale of the disaster and the state’s efforts against it."

"It’s easy to criticize but difficult to appreciate," the minister said.

He also denounced comparisons between the response to the 1999 Izmit earthquake that claimed 17,000 lives and the Feb. 6 tremors that killed more than 44,300 people. "TSK units too have their own families. The army has its internal order. As soon as they had the necessary information, they set out to intervene," Akar explained.

"It’s also impossible to be everywhere all at once. This is a matter of coordination and organization," he said. "We’re talking about a region covering 164,000 square kilometers (63,320.75 square miles), 21% of Türkiye’s geographical span. There’s also our borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran, all of which need to be guarded," he said.

"It’s essential to employ personnel that understands technicalities," Akar noted. "We have used whatever and whoever we could use and we continue to do so."

"What we expect is our people to respect the great pain we’re experiencing countrywide and the great efforts of our soldiers," he said.

Response timeline

Akar then went on to outline the events of the fateful day the tremors jolted the 11 cities and list every move made in the region since.

By 4:50 a.m. on Feb. 6, minutes after the earthquake struck epicenter Kahramanmaraş, Metin Gürak, commander of the second army was on duty and Disaster Emergency Crisis Management Desks were operational simultaneously by 5 a.m. at the Defense Ministry, General Staff headquarters and the command stations, Akar recounted.

"The first report we received was that a building had collapsed in Hatay’s Serinyol district and three of our soldiers were martyred," the minister noted.

In the following hour, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was briefed about the deaths and that troops would proceed to Hatay immediately.

Soldiers ran out of the Second Army Quarters to respond to search and rescue calls in Hatay while other troops began rifling through the rubble in Iskenderun and Kahramanmaraş, according to the minister.

"The Second Army’s order has been clear from the start: all requests from AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Authority) and the governorates are to be quickly met," Akar said.

Between 7 and 9 a.m., ambulance aircraft, landing ships, frigates, drones and helicopters were scrambled; rescue operations were kick-started and three A400M jets laden with staff, vehicles and equipment requested by AFAD took off from Kayseri for Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir despite the bad weather.

"We immediately sent a unit to the Nurdağı district where we don’t have a station. They rescued a baby as soon as they arrived and it was a great boost of morale for them," Akar recalled.

The Second Border Unit Command in Hatay was handing out bowls of soup to survivors by 7:30 a.m. and by 9 a.m., the first field kitchen was set up in Şanlıurfa.

Meanwhile in Ankara, Akar, Chief of the General Staff Yaşar Güler and the Commander of the Land Forces Musa Avsever inspected preparations to deploy TSK's Humanitarian Aid Brigade Command’s Search and Rescue Battalion. Due to the damage at Hatay Airport, the command jet landed at the 10th Tanker Base Command at Incirlik, according to Akar.

"When the bad weather made flying on a helicopter impossible, we reached Hatay via highway," the minister explained.

In Hatay, he, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, Hatay Governor Rahmi Doğan, Gen. Güler, and Cmdr. Avsever banded together to tackle the disaster response.

Efforts on-site

Akar informed that the Defense Ministry and the Turkish Armed Forces lost a combined 103 people in the earthquakes and that the injured were still under treatment.

"More than 40,000 soldiers, experts and technical staff, including 57 battalions and 100 search and rescue teams, are currently working in the earthquake zone, assisted by 29 sniffer dogs," Akar said. "Our rescuers pulled from the rubble 326 people and retrieved the bodies of 2,457 of our citizens."

The ministry and the TSK also established an air corridor with 65 planes and 70 helicopters to ferry back and forth rescue personnel, aid supplies, the wounded and citizens wanting to leave the area.

"Britain, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar and the U.S. also enabled help, sending planes and helicopters to assist our air corridor," Akar noted.

A naval transport corridor too was facilitated as TCG Sancaktar and TCG Bayraktar brought personnel and equipment to the Port of Iskenderun.

"A total of 24 ships are on alert at Mersin, Iskenderun, Antalya, Taşucu and Girne (Kyrenia) in Northern Cyprus," Akar said.

Some 4.5 million units of provisions have been handed out in affected cities, also according to the minister.

"Our daily capacity for hot meals has reached 160,000 plates and we’re currently making 400,000 loaves of bread," he said. The ministry also has a laboratory team on the ground that analyzes water and food levels.

In addition to enabling all cold climate tents in army stocks, Turkish troops helped set up 61,000 tents across the region while its factory in Bor is working around the clock to produce tents and containers for the survivors, Akar said.

Moreover, the ministry is operating a comprehensive field hospital in front of the Necip Fazıl City Hospital in Kahramanmaraş, featuring expert military physicians, assistant personnel, and administrative and technical employees numbering 70.

Turkish troops in 19 logistics support bases in the eight affected provinces are working to take delivery of and redistribute aid supplies correctly to the most needed places, Akar further said.

"Our Göktürk satellite and drones constantly scan the area, photographing which building has collapsed where and collecting data for the benefit of our Environment, Urbanism and Climate Change Ministry," he explained.

Akar also assured the Turkish Armed Forces continued fighting terrorism and protecting borders "with the same determination."

Referring to a rocket attack launched by the PKK from northern Syria days after the tremors, Akar said the Turkish military "gave the necessary reaction."

Expressing his condolences for the fallen victims and fellow soldiers, Akar concluded by reiterating, "Türkiye will continue overcoming all problems by uniting as one."