World powers rush to offer Turkey, Syria aid over quake

(ANSA-AFP) - PARIS, FEB 6 - Countries around the world mobilised rapidly to send aid and rescue workers on Monday after a massive earthquake killed more than 2,300 people in Turkey and Syria. The pledges of assistance came from countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, as well as North America. Here are some of the chief pledges of support. - EUROPEAN UNION - The European Union has mobilised 10 search and rescue teams for Turkey after the stricken country requested EU assistance, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and EU crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarcic said. The EU's Copernicus satellite system has been activated to provide emergency mapping services, it said adding the bloc was ready to support those affected in Syria too. - UNITED NATIONS - The UN General Assembly observed a minute of silence in tribute to the victims. "Our teams are on the ground assessing the needs and providing assistance. We count on the international community to help the thousands of families hit by this disaster, many of whom were already in dire need of humanitarian aid in areas where access is a challenge," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

- INDIA - Two of India's National Disaster Response Force teams comprising 100 personnel with dog squads and equipment were ready to be flown to the affected area, the foreign ministry said. Doctors and paramedics with medicines were also being readied. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "anguished" and "deeply pained" by the deaths in Turkey -- with whom India has frosty relations -- and Syria. - GERMANY - Germany -- home to about three million people of Turkish origin -- will "mobilise all the assistance we can activate", Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said. Germany's Federal Agency for Technical Relief "can set up camps to provide shelter as well as water treatment units", she said. Generators, tents and blankets are also being readied. - RUSSIA - President Vladimir Putin promised to send Russian teams to both countries in telephone calls with Syria's Bashar al-Assad and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "In the nearest hours, rescuers from the Russian emergency ministry will take off for Syria," the Kremlin said. The defence ministry said 300 military personnel deployed in Syria were helping with the clear-up effort. - UKRAINE - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his war-torn country was "ready to provide the necessary assistance to overcome the consequences of the disaster." - GREECE - Kyriakos Mitsotakis, prime minister of Turkey's historic rival Greece, whose relations with Ankara have suffered from a spate of border and cultural disputes, pledged to make "every force available" to aid its neighbour. (ANSA-AFP).

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