06 Feb 2023; MEMO: Russian rescue workers will fly to Syria and Turkiye after a huge earthquake killed about 1,700 people and injured thousands more, the Kremlin said on Monday, Reuters reports.
President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Syrian leader, Bashar Al-Assad and Turkiye's Tayyip Erdogan to express his condolences over the death and destruction wrought by the magnitude 7.8 quake, the worst to strike Turkiye this century.
Putin offered to send Russian rescue teams to both Turkey and Syria.
"Bashar Al-Assad gratefully accepted this offer and, in the coming hours, rescuers of the Russian Emergencies Ministry will fly to Syria," the Kremlin said in a statement.
"The Turkish President warmly thanked Vladimir Putin for such a prompt and sincere reaction and said that he was giving instructions to the competent authorities of the country to accept the help of Russian rescuers," it said.
WATCH: Syrian left in tears after losing baby to earthquake
Russia said it had emergency rescue Ilyushin-76 planes on standby to fly to the two countries. Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, ordered Russian Forces in Syria to help with the rescue effort.
Russia backed Assad in Syria's civil war, launching a military campaign that helped turn the tide of the conflict in his favour, even though the West had called for the Syrian leader to go.
Russia has a naval base in Tartus on the Syrian coast, and operates the Khmeimim Air Base, north of Tartus.
Russia's Defence Ministry said its military facilities in Syria had not been damaged by the earthquake.
Nuclear Plant
Separately, an official from Russia's state atomic energy company, Rosatom, said the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant it is building in southern Turkiye was also not damaged by the quake.
"Nevertheless, we are carrying out extensive diagnostic measures to make sure that construction and installation operations can continue safely," the RIA news agency quoted Rosatom official, Anastasia Zoteeva, as saying.
Armenia, which was struck by a devastating earthquake in 1988, also expressed its sadness over Monday's earthquake, even though the former Soviet republic which borders Turkiye has no diplomatic ties with Ankara due to disputes over history...
"Saddened by the news of the devastating earthquake in Turkiye and Syria that resulted in the loss of so many lives," Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan said.
