At midnight on Thursday, the last humanitarian aid flight was due to depart for the Eleftherios Venizelos. Adana Turkey. Responding to a Turkish request to the mechanism EU civil protection, Greece sent 90 tons of humanitarian aid. Blankets, tents, beds and medical equipment from the MHO warehouses. Before that, there were 7 more flights, the first of which flew from Athens to Turkey at 1:30 am on Wednesday.

Several other EU member states responded. including Germany, Lithuania and Slovenia. This was Turkey’s second request to the European mechanism, since on Monday, just hours after the double devastating earthquake, it asked for help not in materials, but in rescuers from EU member states. Since then, 31 rescue and 5 medical teams with a total of 1,500 people have gone to Turkey. Among them are employees of EMAK and EKAB involved in the releases.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Commission explained that this is the largest search and rescue operation under the auspices of the EU. The same announcement states that the Commission will immediately allocate 3 million euros in emergency financial assistance. As for Syria, The Greek official explained yesterday in a conversation with “K” that Damascus sent on Wednesday a request to the European mechanism asking for assistance in medicines. The corresponding request was initially sent to the Ministry of Civil Protection, which, in turn, sent it to the Ministry of Health.

Due to the specifics of the region, the material is likely to be sent to the north-west of Syria not directly, but through Brussels. The cost in each case is covered by a commission of 75%, while in the case of Turkey at least the remaining 25% was covered as a donation by the air carrier (Aegean). Humanitarian aid and members of the Greek mission, which was attended by Minister Christos Stylianidis and Secretary General Vassilis Papageorgiou, were met at Adana Airport on Thursday at 4 am by a representative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry. “This is the moment when we should all show our humanitarian feelings for the Turkish people who are being tested by this earthquake, the devastating effects of which are beyond imagination,” Mr. Stylianides told Turkish media. Yesterday, the head of the operational department of the fire department, Lieutenant General V.V. Athanasios Balafas, described the way the Greek EMAK search and rescue mission was designed and operates in the field. According to him, for 2.5 days the mission tried to pull the missing from the rubble in the same house, which “shows the colossal scale of destruction.” By Wednesday evening, five people were pulled out of the rubble alive and five more died.

For 2.5 days, the Greek EMAK mission tried to rescue the missing in the same building.

“Usually we end an investigation at some point and move on. But there was such a situation here that they could not stop the investigation even for a minute,” Mr. Balafas said, adding that strong tremors at any moment could create a dangerous situation for rescuers.

As Mr. Balafas pointed out, the window of opportunity for finding survivors does not close tightly after 72 hours. There are cases, as he pointed out, in other natural disasters of the successful release of missing persons even after 14 days. However, over time, the chances also decrease.

The Hellenic Mission operating in Turkey currently consists of 36 EMAK 1st and 2nd firefighters, 8 EKAV members (three doctors and five paramedics), two fire brigade engineer officers and OASP President Efthimis Lekkas. A total of 88 teams from around the world were working in Turkey until yesterday, while others are expected to move to the earthquake-hit region.

Meanwhile, the Greek embassy in Ankara was informed by relatives that a Greek couple with dual citizenship had gone missing in the city of Antioch. As soon as it received the information, the Greek Embassy informed the local authorities and rescue teams. Efforts to find them continue.