Türkiye will recover fast from the deadly quakes: Pakistan rescue team

The people of Türkiye will “recover fast” after the deadly earthquakes, search and rescue volunteers from Pakistan, who have been in the country’s southern disaster zones for more than a week, have said.

“What we have seen here during the post-quake operations is that Turks have the capacity to recover fast,” said Sarfaraz Shaikh, part of a team from Pakistan’s Alkhidmat Foundation, at the airport in Adana.

“Everyone had something to offer to quake-affected people. We saw that in Istanbul and everywhere we went,” said Shaikh, whose team landed in Türkiye on February 10 and will fly home on Monday.

Rizwan Ahmad, the group’s coordinator, said Türkiye and Pakistan have a “strong history” and enjoy close bilateral ties and pointed out that Türkiye is always the first to respond to any disaster in Pakistan.

“Be it the 2005 earthquake, or the floods of 2010 and 2022, Türkiye was there. It is our duty, our obligation to come here and serve people in their time of sorrow and need,” he said.

READ MORE: 'Türkiye's pain is our pain': Pakistani rescuers stand by quake victims

Need for psychiatrists

Alkhidmat, one of South Asia’s biggest civil society groups with more than 60,000 volunteers, dispatched a crew of 47 specialists to help with rescue and relief efforts in coordination with Türkiye’s disaster response agency AFAD.

The team searched through at least 30 disaster sites and recovered bodies of many victims according to Fawad Sherwani, Alkhidmat’s search and rescue leader.

“It is our responsibility to support Türkiye in this hour of need,” he said.

Ahmad said the team included a doctor and four paramedics, and also brought its own tools and equipment for search and rescue, including cutters, generators, detectors, and protective suits.

“People are now facing breathing issues, sore throat, skin diseases, and the cold weather,” Dr. Muhammad Kashif, one of the team members.

“There is also a need for psychiatrists. Turks are brave. They don’t ask for anything, but they need immediate psychological and emotional therapy.”

Kashif said donors should prioritise sending hygiene kits to the quake-affected regions while emphasising the need for more paediatricians and chest specialists.

Alkhidmat was among more than 9,000 international search and rescue teams, including others from Pakistan, who worked in 11 Turkish provinces -Kahramanmaras, Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Elazig, and Sanliurfa - struck by the February 6 twin tremors.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes have now claimed more than 40,000 lives in Türkiye, with more than 13 million people directly affected in what Turkish authorities have dubbed the “disaster of the century.”

READ MORE: Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif to visit Türkiye's earthquake-hit areas