Taiwan President, Vice President To Donate One Month Salary For Turkish Earthquake Relief Efforts
This was stated by the presidential office on Thursday, adding to the island's existing aid, according to Reuters.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Vice President William Lai will each donate one month's salary to Turkish earthquake relief efforts.
This was stated by the presidential office on Thursday, adding to the island's existing aid, according to Reuters.
The duo who are expected to contest for the presidency next year, "hope to do their part to help Turkey rebuild its homeland as soon as possible", the presidential office said in a statement.
Turkey, like most countries, has no diplomatic relations with Chinese-claimed Taiwan; however, the two maintain de facto embassies in each other's capitals, and direct flights exist between Istanbul and Taipei.
Tsai signed a book of condolences at the de facto Turkish embassy in Taipei on Thursday, writing: "My heart goes out to our Turkish neighbours. Taiwan supports Turkey! "her office claims.
Tsai and Lai both donated one month's salary to aid humanitarian relief efforts in war-torn Ukraine last year. Tsai's monthly salary is around T$400,000 ($13,300).
SaharaReporters earlier reported that the death toll from Monday's catastrophic earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria surpassed 15,000 on Thursday morning.
AFAD, Türkiye’s disaster management agency, put the number of fatalities in the county at 12,391 in an update on Thursday, while the Syrian Health Ministry recorded 1,262 deaths, as of Wednesday.
The White Helmets, a Western-funded group operating in parts of Syria that are not controlled by Damascus, has put the figure at more than 1,900. Combined with the Turkish tally, the death toll has surpassed 15,500, a report by RT said.
Taiwan, which frequently suffers earthquakes itself, has already announced $2 million in disaster relief and has sent two rescue teams to Turkey to help in search efforts for survivors.
Tsai spoke by video call to some of Taiwan's team on the ground on Wednesday.
"I would like to thank all the members for not being afraid of difficulties and going all out so that Taiwan and Turkey can help each other," she wrote on her Facebook page.
Turkey joined international efforts and sent rescuers to Taiwan in 1999 after a massive earthquake killed more than 2,000 people.
-sahara reporters
