Israel Matzav

Survivors slam Erdogan who turns to Israel for help

Accused of caring more for the 'Palestinians' than for his own people Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been forced to seek help in coping with the earthquake that rocked the eastern part of his country earlier this week. From Israel.

According to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, the Turks made a request through Israel's embassy in Ankara for Israel to send mobile homes to the devastated Van province where the earthquake hit.

The Defense Ministry chartered a civilian 747 plane Tuesday night to take seven mobile homes to Turkey on Wednesday. According to a Defense Ministry official, this will be the first of a number of planes that will be sent carrying aid.

The official would not comment on whether the reason a civilian plane was hired, and that an IDF transport plane was not being used, was because of a Turkish ban on Israeli military flights over Turkey since the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010.

Since the earthquake hit on Sunday, both President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu contacted their Turkish counterparts and offered assistance.

At this point the Turks have not asked for Israeli personnel to help rescue and recovery efforts. After a massive earthquake there in 1999, Israel dispatched a search and rescue team of some 250 people, plus a field hospital.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak set up a small team in the ministry on Tuesday to look at what other aid can be supplied, and how to best to get it there.

One foreign ministry source warned against reading any diplomatic significance in the Turkish acceptance of the Israeli assistance, saying all this showed was that there was a massive humanitarian tragedy in Turkey and a real need for help dealing with it. The number of dead in the earthquake rose Tuesday to over 430, with that number expected to grow in the coming days.

YNet adds:

Turkey has been showered with offers of outside help since the quake, but at first only accepted help from neighbouring Iran, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan. However, a foreign ministry official said on Tuesday that it had now requested prefabricated housing and tents from more than 30 countries.

...

Meanwhile, fighting broke out among Turkish earthquake survivors on Tuesday as homeless families scrambled for tents after enduring two nights of biting cold under whatever shelter they can find.

Complaints about poor tent distribution have been rife since Sunday's quake destroyed thousands of homes and made many others uninhabitable, and anger among the destitute is being directed at Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Survivors, many of whom have been forced to huddle round small fires in the open, accused Erdogan of putting international diplomacy before his own citizens.

"There is absolutely no coordination, you have to step on people to get a tent. The Prime Minister should take care of his own people before going to Somalia and Libya," said jobless 18-year-old Suleyman Akbulut.

"The prime minister runs for help when it's Palestine or Somalia, sends ships to Palestine, almost goes into war with Israel for the sake of Palestinians, but he doesn't move a muscle when it comes to his own people," said Emrullah, an 18-year-old from Van.

"He rejects aid offers from around the world, but we need tents here," Emrullah said before the announcement of the international request for help.

Hopefully these people will now get the help they need.

Labels: Israeli emergency aid, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish earthquake, Turkish obsession with Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:54 PM