Davutoglu replies to claims on Turkey's rejection of foreign aid

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu yesterday rejected claims in media reports that Turkey has closed its doors to other countries which are willing to heal its wounds following the 7.2-magnitude earthquake which has hit the eastern province of Van on Sunday. "Actually this is not true and I'm quite surprised, because all these offers were received by our ministry and some world leaders phoned President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Some of them also called me, but we have never said to them that we reject their aid offers. We have never closed our doors to anyone. On the contrary, Erdogan thanked all these countries from Van yesterday. The aid offers were received by more than 20 countries," said Davutoglu, adding, "We have no reservations about receiving help in the event of need from countries which have conveyed friendly offers of help. But there are various stages of it. The first stage consists of search and rescue teams; the second one is considered a kind of rehabilitation and finally the third stage covers post-emergency activities. In terms of search and rescue teams, approximately 500 team members from various provinces in Turkey have been already located in the earthquake zone. As efforts were being conducted in terms of internal organization and coordination at that time, we had no special request." Davutoglu added that firstly Azerbaijan and Iran had sent aid due to their geographical closeness to Turkey and that apart from those countries, we have said to all countries that we would be glad to receive their offer, if needed. Furthermore, the Prime Minister's Office, Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) yesterday stated to the Foreign Ministry that tents and prefabricated houses were needed from more than 30 countries.