ADDS TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER'S PHONE CALLS
By Diyar Guldogan
ANKARA (AA) – Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about the situation in Türkiye’s earthquake-hit southern region in a phone call on Thursday.
Cavusoglu and Blinken also discussed the ongoing relief operations in the affected areas.
Cavusoglu also separately held phone calls with his Portuguese counterpart Joao Gomes Cravinho, Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom, Azerbaijani Emergency Situations Minister Kemalettin Haydarov, and Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, according to the Turkish diplomatic sources.
More than 16,500 people have been killed and over 66,100 injured after two powerful earthquakes jolted southern Türkiye on Monday, according to the latest official figures.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, have impacted some 13 million people across 10 Turkish provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.