“A military medical mission will begin its activities in Turkey and will bring aid to the victims of the earthquake; in this way we strengthen our alliance solidarity with Turkey”, stated Minister of National Defence Mariusz Blaszczak.

The head of the defence ministry said at a press briefing that doctors, nurses and paramedics from the Military Field Hospital from Wrocław will travel to Turkey to bring aid to earthquake victims. As he said, they are experienced medics who participated in medical missions in Lombardy and Chicago during the coronavirus pandemic.

Minister Blaszczak announced that Polish medics will be ready to set up a field hospital from Thursday morning; its location will be indicated by the Turkish services.

“This is our contribution. In addition to the mission composed of personnel from the National Fire Service, there will be a military mission alongside the medical mission. The military medical mission will start its activities in Turkey today. In this way, we are strengthening our alliance solidarity with Turkey”, said Blaszczak.

Fifty-two soldier-medics will go to the site of the disaster. Polish soldiers will build a mobile medical facility on site – a point where quake victims will be pre-treated and diagnosed. 

The epicentre of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday (6 February) morning was in Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province. Less than 12 hours later, a second quake of magnitude 7.7 occurred a few dozen kilometres to the north. The quakes were accompanied by a series of more than 100 aftershocks.

At the scene of the disaster, four teams from Poland with dozens of firefighters have been involved in the search and rescue operation since Tuesday. They are assisted by specially trained dogs. By Wednesday, firefighters had managed to extract 10 people alive from under the rubble. 

Arkadiusz Słomczyński