National Police Sends Personnel Assistance To Turkey

JAKARTA - The National Police has dispatched aid personnel as part of a humanitarian operation to help the victims of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey.

"The plan for the National Police Chief is to send Police SAR troops for a humanitarian operation in Turkey," said Head of Police Public Relations Division Inspector General Dedi Prasetyo reported by ANTARA, Thursday, February 9.

The plan is for the sending of Polri personnel to Turkey to be officially released by Kabaharkam Polri Komjen Arief Sulistyanto, Kadivhubinter Polri Inspector General Krishna Murti, and Kapusdokkes Polri Inspector General Asep Hendradiana at Baharkam Square, Police Headquarters, at 15.00 WIB.

Based on the information obtained, in the Turkish earthquake relief humanitarian operation, Polri sent three teams under the coordination of the Security Maintenance Agency (Baharkam), namely a health team consisting of specialist doctors and nurses; the forensic team from the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) of the National Police; as well as the K-9 team (sniffer dogs).

The entire team will be sent off to Turkey to strengthen the Indonesian Government's humanitarian assistance operations team under the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (Kemenko PMK).

The Indonesian government is distributing humanitarian aid to Turkey to help earthquake victims in the country led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Based on information from the Indonesian Ambassador to Turkey Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the first phase of humanitarian aid was distributed on Monday (6/2).

The aid package was in the form of a container of food and was handed over by the Indonesian Embassy in Ankara to Gaziantep which is located about six hours' drive from Ankara. Iqbal said the food aid was instant food accompanied by a portable gas stove and gas cylinder.

Apart from food, the Indonesian Embassy in Ankara has also prepared around 300 blankets for Indonesian citizens (WNI) who were affected by the earthquake and chose to stay in shelters.

Thousands of people were reported killed and tens of thousands injured in 10 provinces in Turkey due to two large earthquakes that rocked the southern region of the country, Monday (6/2).

On Monday morning, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit Pazarcik district in Kahramanmaras province and shook a number of other provinces, including Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Adana, Adiyaman, Malatya, Ormaniye, Hatay, and Kilis.

Then, at 13.24 local time or 17.24 WIT, an aftershock with a magnitude of 7.6 struck Elbistan Kahramanmaras.