ANKARA - The delegation headed by State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin returned to Turkey late on Saturday after paying a visit to the quake-stricken Bam city of Iran.
State Minister Kursad Tuzmen, Health Minister Recep Akdag, and Public Works and Housing Minister Zeki Ergezen were in the delegation.
Addressing journalists at Ankara's Esenboga Airport after his arrival, Sahin said, ''the current dead toll was announced as 26 thousand 500. However, this number is expected to increase to 30 thousand after bodies are recovered from rubble of the collapsed buildings. Meanwhile, number of the injured people in the quake disaster exceeded 13 thousand.''
Noting that the disaster left nearly 90 thousand people homeless, Sahin told reporters, ''first temporary huts and then permanent dwellings should be constructed in Bam. Iranian officials thanked us for efforts of Turkish search-and-rescue and health teams. We met with Iranian Islamic Consultative Assembly Speaker Mehdi Karubi at the crisis desk. He also thanked us.''
''Iranian officials requested Turkey to send 15 thousand containers in order to meet urgent requirement of quake survivors for settlement. Turkey has sent 800 containers to Iran so far. We have been expanding efforts to fulfill our humanitarian duties towards our neighbor Iran. We will explain our impressions during Monday's meeting of the Council of Ministers,'' he said.
Noting that they had to cancel their visit to Tehran due to bad weather conditions, Sahin added that Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul would pay a visit to Iran next week.
(UK) 04.01.2004