Global Courant 2023-04-20 08:20:20
NEW YORK
The Presidency of Communications of Turkey hosted a panel at the UN headquarters on Wednesday highlighting the importance of humanitarian diplomacy during natural disasters.
Turkey’s Special Representative to the UN Sedat Önal, Deputy Director of Communications Çağatay Özdemir, Justice and Development (AK) Party Deputy Ziya Altunyaldız, General Manager of AFAD Earthquake and Risk Reduction Orhan Tatar, and members of the Presidency Security and Foreign Policy Council Nursin Ateşoğlu. Güney and Çağrı Erhan, as well as Ghada Eltahir Mudawi, OCHA Director of Operations and Advocacy.
Turkey Communications Director Fahrettin Altun drew attention to the importance of combating disinformation in disasters in his video message at the panel.
Altun said, “We have to fight with international determination against disinformation that turns disaster times into turmoil.”
In the face of this great disaster that no country can easily prepare for and no state can fight alone, an unprecedented state and national solidarity has been demonstrated.
Altun noted that after the earthquakes, the aid provided by many international organizations, especially the UN and NATO, is very important for Turkey.
He said the panel at the UN highlighted the value of aid and cooperation in the face of potential natural disasters or humanitarian crises that could occur globally.
Önal reminded that Turkey quickly called for emergency aid and that 122 countries rushed to Turkey’s aid and said that search and rescue teams from 90 countries were in the country for rescue efforts.
Thanking the international community for his solidarity, Önal said that more needs to be done for recovery in the coming period.
On February 6, 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes occurred in many provinces of Turkey and more than 50,000 people lost their lives.
Nearly 14 million people in Turkey and many in northern Syria were affected by the earthquakes.
