'Azerbaijan sending new team to help Turkey fight wildfires'

ANKARA

Azerbaijan will send a new team to help Turkey in its efforts to battle the wildfires in the country, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Some 160 personnel, 40 fire trucks, and one plane will arrive from Azerbaijan early on Thursday, Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a news conference in Manavgat, a district in Turkey’s Mediterranean province of Antalya where wildfires are currently raging.

This will be the third team Baku has sent to assist Turkey’s fight against the wildfires that have erupted in southwestern Turkey since last week.

Cavusoglu was accompanied by Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum and Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoglu.

Cavusoglu said six planes, two unmanned aerial vehicles, 17 helicopters, 1,878 emergency vehicles, and over 6,500 personnel have been engaged in efforts to douse blazes in Manavgat.

Four planes hired from a private Ukrainian company arrived at Isparta Airport in western Turkey on Wednesday, while two more planes rented from an Israeli firm will arrive in the country on Thursday, the foreign minister added.

According to Cavusoglu, Turkey has received offers of assistance from Pakistan, Poland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the US, Canada, and Japan.

Kurum, the environment, and urbanization minister, said the medical treatment of 708 out of a total of 722 citizens wounded in the blazes has been completed.

“Nearly 13 million Turkish liras have been provided to 912 people whose houses were damaged in the fires. Aid amounting to 47.5 million Turkish liras has reached the region so far,” he said.

A total of 187 fires broke out in Turkey in the last eight days, and 15 of them are currently ongoing, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.