Cuban President expresses condolences to Turkey for earthquake victims

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez expressed his condolences to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for the death of 114 people due to last Friday's earthquake.

According to the Caribbean nation's embassy in Ankara, Díaz-Canel sent a message to the Turkish President. He expressed the solidarity of the Cuban people and government and regretted the human and material losses.

Likewise, he expressed his support for the families affected by the earthquake.

Recently, the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, conveyed his condolences to Turkey and Greece, also affected by the earthquake.

The Agency for Disaster Control and Emergencies of Turkey announced Wednesday the end of the search and rescue operations of possible survivors. It indicated that the number of injured people amounts to 1,350.

Although Turkish authorities indicated that the earthquake's magnitude was 6.6 on the Richter scale, the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center placed that indicator at 7.0 and specified that the earthquake had its epicenter in the Aegean Sea.

According to the Anadolu news agency, during the last five days, there were around 1,621 aftershocks, 44 of them with a magnitude higher than 4.0.

For his part, the Turkish Minister of Environment and Urbanism, Murat Kurum, pointed out that 180 buildings were severely affected or destroyed due to this phenomenon, and alternatives are being sought to provide shelter and help to the victims.