Indonesia Continues to Assist Turkiye until Reconstruction Phase

Antakya, MINA – The Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy said, the Government of Indonesia will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to earthquake victims in Turkiye until the post-earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction phase.

“We will also continue to assist until the rehabilitation and reconstruction stage, of course that is if the Turkish government needs it, and earlier the Turkish government also hopes that we will also take a role at that next stage,” said the Coordinating Minister for PMK after visiting the operations center of the Indonesia Search team. and Rescue (INASAR) in Antakya City, Hatay Province, Turkey on Wednesday.

Muhadjir said he had met with the Minister of Health of Turkey to ensure that all assistance from the Indonesian government, both in the form of personnel and medical assistance, was well received. Likewise with logistical assistance, equipment, and food for the earthquake victims.

“The Turkish government still hopes for assistance, especially for tetanus and rabies vaccines and serum, and earlier I promised I would immediately convey it to the President for further decisions of course later in the hands of the President,” he explained.

In addition to requests for vaccines and serum, the Turkiye government is also asking for assistance regarding the construction of houses for affected residents during the rehabilitation and reconstruction stage later. For this reason, the government will invite Indonesian private parties to participate.

“We will wait from the Turkiye government for whatever is still needed. Earlier we also asked that later during the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase, especially housing, requests for housing assistance and we will try later to invite all private parties apart from the government to join together, but what type of assistance will we consult with the government first, especially with the President,” he said.

During the inspection at the INASAR operations center, the Coordinating Minister for PMK accompanied by the Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Suharyanto, and the Indonesian Ambassador to Turkiye, Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, greeted the personnel who had been on duty in Turkiye since 12 February 2023. The Indonesian SAR personnel also demonstrated their abilities before the government delegation.

“I am very impressed with what has been done here and have done real work, including finding living victims and victims who have died and these tasks will end soon because they will soon be replaced with tasks towards rehabilitation and reconstfuction,” said the Coordinating Minister for PMK.

According to the Coordinating Minister for PMK, the SAR and humanitarian operations in Turkiye and Syria were the largest operations ever carried out by the Indonesian government abroad.

“This is a SAR and humanitarian operation, the largest humanitarian operation we have ever carried out completely and we have sent four planes to send both to Turkey and Syria and we will continue for further assistance,” he said. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)