A lot of positivity towards the Greeks is coming from Turkish social media users due to Greece's help in the areas hit by Monday's deadly earthquake. Many also criticised President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for inflaming tensions with Greece, commenting: "The Greeks finally came at night, to help us".
An image showing a Greek firefighter holding a small child in his arms has also gone viral, with the meaning of the image fully reflecting the contribution of Greek rescuers to the affected areas of Turkey.
Some typical posts:
"Greece that we threatened with: 'we will come suddenly one night', gave a lesson in humanity to the dictator and his comrades. This image becomes one of the most emblematic of the earthquake."
“Bir gece ansızın geliriz” tehditlerini savurduğumuz Yunanistan, diktatör ve avanesine insanlık dersi verdi. Bu görüntü depremin ikonik fotolarından biri olur. pic.twitter.com/OdtxvEc8dh
— Hasan Cücük (@HasanCucuk) February 9, 2023
"Foundations in Greece are collecting aid for Turkey. Israel was the first country to send aid. In England, schools collect donations for Turkey. Are these our enemies? Why have you been turning the nation against these people for years?”
Yunanistan ’da her kurum Türkiye için yardım topluyor. İsrail ilk yardıma koşan ülke oldu. İngiltere ’de bütün okullara çağrı yapıldı, her okulda Türkiye için bağış toplanıyor. Bunlar mı bizim düşmanlarımız ? Yıllardır bu insanlara niye düşman ettiniz milleti ? 🤦🏻♂️ #deprem
— mincitaxaneri (@mincitaxaneri) February 9, 2023
"Brotherhood of Turkey and Greece. The Turkish people will never forget this"
Türkiye ve Yunanistan Kardeşliği. Türk halkı bunu asla unutmayacak 🙏🏼 #Greece #Yunanistan #Türkiye #Kardeş 🙏🏼🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/Kg2VuRPaA4
— Murat Öztürk (@MuratOzturks) February 9, 2023
“They embrace life and human existence. Photo by the Greek rescue team of EMAK"
https://twitter.com/cihana1900/status/1623601393951993856
"Greece really cried with us in this disaster. They showed their humanity in front of the whole world. They did what they had to do for the neighbour who were caught on fire"
https://twitter.com/esref_sungur/status/1623602272126074880
"The friend reveals himself in difficult times. This picture should be hung in all Greek and Turkish consulates honestly"
Dost zor günde belli olur, bu resim bütün Yunanistan ve Türk konsolosluklarına asılmalı ! #Tesekkuerler_yunanistan pic.twitter.com/dR26bS6Zob
— хассиктир юлен (@LuigiCey) February 9, 2023
"Rescuers from Greece and other countries save a lot of people. There is no problem between the peoples. All the problems come from the politicians. Atatürk's 'Peace at home, peace in the world' we must understand and focus on our real problems"
https://twitter.com/tunacanatar/status/1623595209056452608
"We are grateful to Greece"
Minnettarız Yunanistan🙏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/DuYqaWNxf0
— sevenasiye (@sevenasiye0) February 9, 2023
“Thank you neighbour. We are all brothers"
#Yunanistan Sağol komşu,Hepimiz kardeşiz🤝#Greek Ευχαριστώ γείτονα, Είμαστε όλοι αδελφοί και αδελφές🤝 pic.twitter.com/i9y4Qta2LL
— 🇹🇷OĞU💤 (@istkas1) February 9, 2023
In the warmest way Turkish citizens continue to welcome the help that Greece sends to their country after the deadly 7.8 Richter earthquake early on Monday.
Indicative of the gratitude expressed by the Turks towards our country are the responses to the posts of the Greek embassy in Turkey for the humanitarian aid that was sent on Wednesday night, headed by the Minister of Civil Protection, Christos Stylianidis and for the arrival of the second rescue crew.
"Thank you", "thank you friend and neighbour" were some of the posts in Greek made once again by Turkish twitter users for Greece's help to Turkey.
Teşekkür ederiz her şey için
— Uğur Tuzcular 🇦🇱 (@Tuzcular) February 9, 2023
https://twitter.com/nihatt111/status/1623570187281743875
ευχαριστώ πάρα πολύ
— jlo (@spika3584) February 9, 2023
We will not forget this day never . Thank you
— Sibel (@Secil3562) February 9, 2023
The death toll in Turkey from Monday’s earthquakes has risen to 14,014, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said, with more than 63,000 people injured.
Visiting the quake-hit province of Gaziantep, Erdoğan said more than 6,400 buildings had been destroyed and that Turkey aimed to build new three and four-storey buildings in the region within one year, Reuters reports.
A total of at least 3,162 are confirmed dead in Syria, with government-held areas reporting 1,262 people dead and 1,900 killed in the rebel-controlled northwest, meaning the combined tally in both countries now stands at 17, 176.
Experts have said that it is likely to continue to rise.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has underlined the importance for humanitarian organisations of making sure that people who have survived the quake “continue to survive”.
The WHO’s incident response manager, Robert Holden, told reporters in Geneva many were surviving “out in the open, in worsening and horrific conditions” with severely disrupted water, fuel and electricity supplies:
We are in real danger of seeing a secondary disaster which may cause harm to more people than the initial disaster if we don’t move with the same pace and intensity as we are doing on the search and rescue side. People need the basic elements to survive the next period.
An aid convoy has reached northwestern Syria, the first since Monday’s devastating earthquake that has killed nearly more than 1,000 people in the the rebel-held area, an official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing has told Agence France-Presse.
READ MORE: The image of a Greek rescuer holding a Turkish child has gone viral - Who created it?
