Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the US has not sent or requested to receive an aircraft carrier in the republic's internal waters to help with earthquake relief.
"Warships are constantly cruising in the eastern Mediterranean. We can't decide which country's ships go in international waters, but it's up to us to decide who can come into our waters. There has been no such request from America, and even if there had been, we would not have permitted it. There is no such need [for the arrival of an aircraft carrier]," Yeni Şafak paper quoted the minister as saying on Monday.
Thus, the daily explains, Cavusoglu was commenting on the words of Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder, who said last week that the US had allegedly sent the USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier to Turkey. It was scheduled to arrive in the port city of Mersin.
"We have no need to accept a warship. Some countries, including Greece, have offered to send cruise ships to the region where people who lost their homes could live until June," Cavusoglu said.
According to the latest data, 31,643 people were killed and 80,278 people were injured in the February 6 earthquakes in southeastern Turkey. 6,444 buildings were destroyed. Rescue efforts and rubble removal are still ongoing in the region. Rescuers are still registering signs of life under piles of concrete, even though more than a week has passed since the collapse and temperatures have dropped to sub-zero levels at night.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS