Ministry of Foreign Affairs-

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Last updated: 18th February 2023

Press Release

Foreign Minister Dr. Momen's phone call with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu

Dhaka, 17 February 2023:

Foreign Minister Dr. A K Abdul Momen, MP spoke on Wednesday (15 February 2023) with Turkish Foreign Minister Mr. Mevlut Cavusoglu to again express condolences for the loss of life in the wake of earthquakes and support for Turkish people.

"We are really devastated at the scale of devastation and the death. We express our wholehearted condolence and also you would take us as your brother to assist you as much as we can. This is a great shock to all of us in Bangladesh," Dr. Momen said during the call.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu thanked Dr. Momen for calling and also thanked the government of Bangladesh and the people of brotherly Bangladesh for sincere messages of condolences and solidarity from the Hon'ble President, Honourable Prime Minister, Honourable Speaker of the parliament and Hon'ble Foreign Minister. Thanking the Bangladesh government for sending a search, rescue and medical team of 60 people and tents he said these are actually what they need at this moment urgently.

Dr. Momen mentioned that Bangladesh is sending another ten thousand tents in addition to two thousand tents sent earlier.

Foreign Minister Dr. Momen wanted to know about the current situation and his Turkish counterpart Mr. Mevlut Cavusoglu stated that '... It's worst what you’ve seen on TV. Some provinces were affected by the earthquakes, two strong earthquakes actually of 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude, thousands of aftershocks and some of them more than 6.5 magnitude. We lost more than 35 thousand people and there are people under the rubble that we couldn’t reach. We are doing our best to normalize life, to provide temporary shelter and also we are planning the reconstruction of the region affected by the earthquake.'

Mr. Mevlut Cavusoglu also expressed sorry about Bangladeshi citizens who were wounded and wished them quick recovery.

Dr. Momen said we rescued two of our students from debris and they are okay and 24 other students, who are affected, we have brought them, put them in the offices and we also paid them enough so that they can manage their day to day needs.

Dr. Momen said, expressing Bangladesh's support, 'Maybe if you need some help, we can send the construction worker. And whatever you need, let us know and we will try our best.'

The Turkish Foreign Minister said we have a brotherly country like Bangladesh. So, if we need anything else we would reach you without any hesitation.

2023-02-17