Photo: AA
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President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asked for people's forgiveness in Hatay, southern Turkey, after the massive earthquakes on February 6.
"If you have had troubles, it is incumbent upon us to ask you for forgiveness," the president remarked yesterday (March 12), addressing a crowd in the city.
He used the word "helallik," a word derived from "helal," Turkish for "halal," which means what is permissible in Islam. He had used the same word in Adıyaman, another province heavily hit by the earthquakes, in late February, sparking an outrage among the opposition. Government officials should be held responsible for the lack of rescue efforts in the first days rather than asking for forgiveness, critics argued.
While saying that the government was "on the field" since the first day ıf the quakes, Erdoğan admitted that there is still a drinking water problem in Hatay.
"We know that the problem has not been solved completely. With new wells put into use, this problem will be solved definitely," he remarked.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli, who accompanied Erdoğan in the visit, also spoke to the crowd, saying, "I share your pain."
The earthquakesOn February 6, two earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.7 and 7.6 struck the southern city of Maraş. The first quake in the Pazarcık district at 4.17 a.m. was followed by the second one in Elbistan about nine hours later. The quakes affected 11 cities in Türkiye's south and southeast, as well as Syria's northern parts, where over 5,000 people have died. Türkiye's death toll from the quakes stands at over 47,000 and is expected to increase further, as over 227,000 buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, according to government figures. Nearly two million people have been displaced due to the earthquakes. |
(ME/VK)
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