Shawdesh desk:

Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday told his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu that Bangladesh was ready to send all-out support to Turkey.

He made the promise while talking to the minister over telephone, said a foreign ministry press release on Thursday.

He expressed condolences for the country’s loss in the recent earthquakes.

‘We are really devastated at the scale of devastation and the death. We express our wholehearted condolence. This is a great shock to all of us in Bangladesh,’ Momen said during the phone call.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu thanked Momen for the phone call. He also thanked the government and people of Bangladesh for expressing solidarity with Turkey in this crisis period.

Thanking Bangladesh government for sending a search, rescue and medical team of 60 people and tents, he said that they needed those supports at this moment urgently.

Momen mentioned that Bangladesh was sending another ten thousand tents to Turkey in addition to two thousand tents which were sent earlier.

About the current situation of Turkey, Mevlut Cavusoglu said, ‘Some provinces of the country were affected by the earthquakes — two strong earthquakes of 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude, and thousands of aftershocks. Some of the aftershocks were of more than 6.5 magnitude. We have lost more than 35 thousand lives and still there are people under the rubble. We are doing our best to normalise life and to provide temporary shelter to people. We are also planning to reconstruct the affected region.’

Mevlut Cavusoglu also expressed condolence to Bangladeshi expatriates in Turkey who were wounded in the incident and wished their quick recovery.

Momen said, ‘We have rescued two of our students from the debris. They are okay now. We have kept 24 other affected Bangladeshi students at the embassy offices.’

Momen also said that Bangladesh could send some construction workers to Turkey if they needed help in this sector.