Earthquakes strengthen Taiwan, Turkey friendship


Date posted: September 24, 2012

Christie Chen Friday 21 September, 2012

Two major earthquakes that struck 13 years ago far apart from each other, have brought two distant countries – Taiwan and Turkey – together on the path of humanitarian aid. “I was certain that my house was going to collapse,” Turkey-based Taiwanese businessman Faisal Hu recalled the night of Aug. 17, 1999, when a 7.6 earthquake hit Turkey, claiming tens of thousands of lives.

Rescue teams from all over the world rushed to Turkey to help save those trapped under the rubbles. But Hu said a feeling of spite began to grow in his heart when days passed and there were no reports of Taiwanese aid coming.

The Muslim said he later learned that the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, one of Taiwan’s largest charity groups, had sent a disaster assessment team from Kosovo to Turkey to assist with disaster relief on the second day of the earthquake.

Tzu Chi had donated prefabricated houses and 200 tents to the earthquake victims in Turkey, said Ferhan Merter, a member of Turkish charity Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody there?). Merter had assisted Tzu Chi in their earthquake relief at that time.

He told Cihan News Agency in a recent telephone interview in Istanbul that the two charities had since enjoyed close ties, visiting and learning from each other.

Just close to one month after the earthquake in Turkey, Taiwan suffered one of its deadliest temblors on Sept. 21, which left more than 2,400 people dead.

The Taiwanese volunteers in Turkey faced a difficult decision – stay in Turkey or go back to Taiwan, but they eventually decided to stay, said Hu.

The news was covered by Turkish daily newspaper Zaman, which said the volunteers who stayed in Turkey despite their own disasters back home were carrying out “true humanitarian aid.”

Hu said he believes helping others is helping oneself. Because of the experience it gained from the disaster relief work in Turkey, Tzu Chi was able to make a speedy entry into the disaster zones in Taiwan after the Sept. 21 quake and set up prefabricated houses in a short time, said Hu.

A rescue team composed of members from the Turkey government and volunteer search and rescue association AKUT also flew to Taiwan after the quake to assist with search and rescue work, he added, calling it “a circulation of goodwill.”

“It doesn’t matter if you come to Turkey, we go there (Taiwan), it’s like paying back to the community of the world,”said Cilasun Bayulgen, director of technical training at AKUT. Bayulgen was in Taiwan as a rescuer after the Sept. 21 earthquake.

That bond continues. Years later, Merter said, Kimse Yok Mu donated US$50,000 to help the victims of a 2009 flooding in Taiwan caused by Typhoon Morakot.

Hu said 817 and 921 were two previously unrelated set of numbers, but they have now connected the people of Taiwan and Turkey.

“There is a lot of sweetness in the painful memories,” he said.

Source: Focus Taiwan


Related News

Kimse Yok Mu provides vocational training for Palestinian orphans

The schools will train 32 students in total in air-conditioning and Turkish language. Additionally, 50 new students including the ones at this school will be sent to Turkey for study. KYM’s official in Jerusalem, Harun Tokak, said “Every country has an orphan population but Palestinian has too many. We have to take care of these children. We’re here to embrace them and will hopefully achieve it.”

Turkish charities take benevolence across borders during Eid al-Adha

Turkish charities knew no borders in spreading benevolence across continents during the four-day Eid al-Adha festival, sacrificing animals, packaging the meat and distributing it and other forms of assistance to the less fortunate in many countries of the world. They distributed food, clothing, money and other forms of assistance to the poor in most of Turkey’s 81 provinces and in more than 120 nations around the world.

Kimse Yok Mu continues relief efforts in Gaza

International nonprofit Kimse Yok Mu continues its humanitarian aid campaign in Gaza which was hit severely by floods.

Kimse Yok Mu did not forget Bangladeshis in Eid al-Adha

Kimse Yok Mu Foundation remembered the needy Bangladeshi in this Eid al-Adha, like it has always done. Those in need received beef donations on the first day of the eid across the nation. Local officials in the city Chadpur, including the governor İsmail Hossain and chair of Dakka Chamber of Commerce, too joined the distributions in person, besides giving away their own donations.

Families Of Afghan-Turk School Students Hold Protest In Kabul [against Turkish Gov’t]

Families of Afghan-Turk Schools students on Sunday held a protest meeting in Kabul and called on the Afghan government to rescind its decision to hand over the Afghan-Turk schools to the Turkish government.

Kimse Yok Mu distributes aid to Syrian refugees

As Turkey is trying to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who have taken shelter in Turkey from the war in Syria, charity organizations have scrambled to launch massive aid campaigns to lend a hand to the embattled refugees, with Kimse Yok Mu providing food and aid for 2,500 Syrians in İstanbul every week.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Bringing Peace While Breaking Fasts

Gülen book finds wide readership in northern Iraq

Opposition condemns Erdoğan’s vindictive remarks against Gülen movement

The cleric next door: Pocono neighbors weigh in on Fethullah Gülen, the man Turkey wants back

Multilingual singer Julie Slim breathes life into songs

Kimse Yok Mu medical volunteers in the Philippines

Turks Fleeing To Greece Find Mostly Warm Welcome, Despite History

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News