Following the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey yesterday, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the building of the Hungarian embassy in Ankara has been temporarily evacuated.
According to MTI, the minister said the government will send a team of 50 people on Monday evening to help with rescue operations in the affected area. Minister Szijjártó said he had recently talked to his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, expressed his sympathies and offered Hungary’s help in the search for survivors, caring for the injured and restoring damaged infrastructure. The earthquake could also be felt in the building of Hungary’s embassy in Ankara which has been temporarily evacuated pending an evaluation of its structural integrity by experts, he said. “We have informed Hungarian citizens staying in Turkey, including 213 people who have registered for consular protection, about which areas of the country should not be visited,” he said. “We know about one Hungarian person staying in the affected area, with whom we maintain continuous contact,” he added. He asked for persons with information about Hungarian citizens staying in the affected areas to report them to the consulate. He also said that a team of fifty Hungarian rescuers, including six doctors, will leave for Turkey, under arrangements by the disaster management authority later in the day. Earthquake damage has also been reported from Syria, with several Christian communities having been seriously affected, Szijjártó said. “Support to them will also be on the agenda in the upcoming days, and help will be sent,” he added.