JAKARTA: Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi stated that four Indonesian citizens had died as a result of the M7.7 earthquake that hit Turkey.
“Four Indonesian citizens had died in the Turkey earthquake. They were a mother and her child and two people that were found a few days ago,” she stated at the Presidential Palace Complex, Jakarta, Monday.
The minister detailed that the first two victims found were a mother and a child. The two victims have been buried in Turkey, as they died with the father, who was a Turkish citizen.
The other two victims, who were found, were later identified by the National Police’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Team as Irma Lestari, 33, and Ni Wayan Supini, 45, Marsudi noted.
Search efforts for Lestari and Supini were started right after the earthquake shook Turkey on February 6, 2023, she remarked.
Marsudi stated that the two bodies were finally found under the rubble of the Galeria apartment building in Diyarbakir City after being buried for about two weeks.
She explained that the bodies of the two, who worked as spa therapists, were being handled by the Indonesian Embassy in Ankara and are scheduled to be sent to Indonesia on February 22.
“They are already being taken care of. Our representative has also contacted their families. We have conveyed our condolences and explained their condition. We also asked what the family wishes would be like and then we will handle that,” she noted.
To help the Turkish Government in handling the earthquake mitigation efforts, the Indonesian government deployed the Indonesian Search and Rescue (INASAR) team comprising 48 personnel and two sniffer dogs that arrived in Turkey on February 12, 2023.
In addition, the Indonesian Health Ministry also sent 65 health workers along with 39 other medical personnel from the military, police, and National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) as an Emergency Medical Team (EMT) to treat residents in Turkey and Syria that are affected by the earthquake.
