Armenia has sent humanitarian aid to earthquake-hit Turkey across the closed land border between the two countries, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vahan Hunanyan said on Saturday.
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“Today, Armenia sent humanitarian aid to Turkey. Trucks with humanitarian aid crossed the Margara bridge on the border and are heading to the earthquake-affected region,” Hunanyan wrote on Twitter.
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Earlier, the Armenian side announced the sending of humanitarian aid to Syria.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck southeastern Turkey on Monday morning. It, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has become the strongest since 1939. The number of earthquake victims in Turkey, according to the latest data, has reached 20,665, more than 80,000 injured. In Syria, also affected by the earthquake, more than 1.3 thousand people died, more than 2.3 thousand people were injured.
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There are no diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia, the border between the two countries has been closed since 1993 at the initiative of Ankara. Difficult relations between the countries are caused by a number of circumstances related, in particular, to Ankara’s support for the Azerbaijani position on the Karabakh problem and Turkey’s sharp reaction to the process of international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
