In solidarity with its neighbor Türkiye, Greece has begun a countrywide drive to collect relief goods for earthquake victims in Türkiye and Syria, Greek media reported Friday, in addition to trucks that already set off Friday from Athens with 40 tons of aid from the Greek Red Cross.
The campaign will be carried out in coordination with the Central Union of Municipalities in Greece (KEDE) and 13 regional unions of municipalities, according to public broadcaster ERT.
Citizens have been asked to donate essential materials, including, but not limited to, blankets, flashlights, sleeping bags, personal hygiene items, dry food and baby food, the report said.
Donations will be collected at city halls in various areas until Feb. 13.
Several other public institutions, including ministries and governorships, trade unions and citizens' groups are already conducting more aid drives in numerous cities of Greece, the report added.
At least 19,388 people lost their lives and 77,711 others have been injured since Monday's powerful earthquakes in southern Türkiye, according to the latest official figures.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaraş province, have impacted some 13 million people across 10 Turkish provinces, including Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa.
In neighboring Syria, the death toll has climbed above 3,300, with more than 5,200 people injured.
Assistance from Greek Red Cross on its way
Meanwhile, three Hellenic Red Cross trucks loaded with 40 tons of relief supplies such as beds, tents, blankets, kitchen utensils, food, water, medical supplies and hygiene products, left the Greek capital Athens this morning.
Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Katsaniotis, who was put in charge of organizing institutions and individuals who want to send humanitarian aid to Türkiye and Syria upon the instructions of Greek Prime Minister Kiryakos Mitsotakis, said in a statement to the press that the aid to Türkiye is full of emotions and that the aid will continue.
Speaking at the diplomatic academy in Asuncion, Paraguay, where he is on an official visit, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said, "The catastrophic earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria showed, by the reactions of both the Greek and the Turkish societies, that people are much closer than their leaderships sometimes think."
Speaking to the Anadolu Agency (AA), Greek Red Cross President Antonis Avyeniros stated that the Greek Red Cross Institution has been in contact with the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) since the first day to determine the urgent needs of earthquake victims.
Avyeniros said, "The Greek Red Cross is always with our friends in Türkiye. We have great cooperation with the Turkish Red Crescent. Not just now, but always. We are in full coordination with the Red Crescent," he said.
Avyeniros stated that the trucks are planned to reach the earthquake zone after a 3.5-day journey and noted that they plan to send aid to the earthquake victims in this way with many convoys from now on.
Underlining that these consignments are also a message of friendship and solidarity, Avyeniros said, "We will be by their side (earthquake victims) as much as necessary."
Yorgos Stamatis, the general secretary of Social Solidarity of the Greek Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, said: "We are here to support. We are brothers. We are united in every difficulty. I hope everything will be healed as soon as possible."
Politics put aside
Aimilia Balta's mother fled Türkiye after a war with Greece a century ago but it has not stopped the elderly Greek from donating clothes for the thousands left homeless by the deadly earthquake there.
"People are cold, so we do what we can" to help, Balta – whose mother survived the Greek-Turkish war of 1922 – told Agence France-Presse (AFP) as she left bags of woolens and overcoats at the town hall of a northern Athens suburb.
Thousands of Greeks have responded to calls for aid to quake-hit Türkiye, reviving memories of how a spontaneous outpouring of help after a similar disaster in 1999 brought the neighbors together when they seemed to be on the brink of war.
At the Athens offices of the Greek Red Cross, sleeping bags, blankets, milk cans and boxes of medicine are piling up, the organization's spokesperson Konstantinos Gavriilidis said.
In reference to the truck convoy that left Athens Friday, Gavriilidis said, "A nationwide appeal was launched two days ago... and the response was immediate and abundant."
The Greek government has separately sent 80 tons of medical and first aid equipment.
NATO allies Türkiye and Greece have a history of rivalry that goes back centuries. But the two countries that lie on seismic fault lines also have a tradition of helping each other in quake emergencies. Greece was among the first European countries to send rescue workers and humanitarian aid on Monday, a few hours after the disaster.
"We must make all our forces available to Türkiye," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday. A day later, he tweeted in Turkish: "Greeks and Turks are fighting side by side, together to save lives."
On Wednesday, a second aircraft carrying firefighters, engineers and doctors left Greece.
"Solidarity is alive in these difficult times," Simos Roussos, the mayor of a northern suburb of Athens, said in a Facebook post as he announced local aid collection areas.
"The public reaction is to be expected," Fotini Tsibiridou, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Macedonia in northern Greece, told AFP. Greeks "want to give their support because they are moved by the drama that contrasts with the political rhetoric of division and rivalry," she said.
Greek TV channels are running rescue operation footage live from the disaster zone, reflecting the nation's own quake concerns. A video showing Greek rescuers pulling a child from the rubble in the quake-stricken Turkish region of Hatay has been shared tens of thousands of times.
Balta told AFP that her mother never returned to her home city of Izmir after 1922, and she cannot bring herself to do so either.
"It's too sad, I don't want to go back," she said, but vowing to return to the town hall on Monday with more clothes.
Support from Finland, Latvia on route
The Finnish Red Cross also sent 300,000 euros ($320,530) in aid for those affected by the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquake, which is described as the "disaster of the century."
In the statement made on the organization's website, it said the aid in question would be shared between Türkiye and Syria.
Marko Korhonen, the official of the Finnish Red Cross, which has been working in both countries, said, "There is a need for basic things right now. These are protection from the cold weather, clean water, food and emotional support."
Korhonen added: "We are ready to increase our aid depending on the support needed by the Turkish and Syrian Red Crescents in the field. In addition to the 300,000 euro support, we are ready to send material aid, aid workers and disaster preparedness units to the region for health and logistics."
Latvia, meanwhile, which had previously announced that it would send 70,000 euros to Türkiye, also stated Friday that it would provide additional support.
According to the Baltic news agency BNS, Latvian State Fire and Rescue Services will prepare an aid package consisting of three heated tents adjusted for winter conditions, five lighting sets and 30 metal cable reels for the lighting sets.
The Latvian Emergency Medical Service will provide 5,000 blankets to be sent to Türkiye.
The cost of the aid package is calculated to be 200,000 euros.