Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his sadness over the devastating earthquakes in Turkey in a phone call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday.
The Greek premier also conveyed the support and condolences of the government and the Greek people for the loss of human lives.
Mitsotakis reiterated Greece’s readiness to immediately assist Turkey in every way possible in dealing with the consequences of the devastating earthquakes, an announcement by the Greek government noted.
Erdogan thanked Mitsotakis for the support and Greece’s immediate aid response, as an aid team has already left for southeastern Turkey.
Note that the two leaders have not spoken with each other for almost one year with Turkey to have escalating its aggressive rhetoric to Greece all this time.
Term “earthquake diplomacy” was invented in 1999, when the earthquakes in Izmit in August and Athens in September brought together the two countries after a long period of hostility due to the Imia crisis.
A 7.8 Richter scale earthquake struck southeastern Türkiye early on Monday and was followed by a 7.6 magnitude quake amid several aftershocks.
