Turkey briefly opened its border with Armenia on Saturday, February 11, 2023, to receive humanitarian aid sent by the Armenian government to victims of the devastating earthquakes in southeastern Turkey, RFE/RL reports.
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian posted a video of a convoy of five Armenian trucks crossing a bridge over the Araxes River separating the two countries. They reportedly carried 100 tons of food, medicine and other relief supplies.
Serdar Kilic, a senior Turkish diplomat representing his country in normalization talks with Armenia, tweeted photos of the trucks and thanked Yerevan for the aid.
“I will always remember the generous aid sent by the people of Armenia to help alleviate the sufferings of our people in the earthquake-stricken region in Turkey,” wrote Kilic.
Armenia deployed a 27-strong search-and-rescue team there on Wednesday following Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Garo Paylan, an ethnic Armenian member of the Turkish parliament, said on Saturday that the team rescued an 8-year-old girl from the rubble of a collapsed building in Adiyaman.
Photo – A truck loaded with humanitarian aid crosses the Armenian-Turkish border, February 11, 2023
