Iraqi president calls his Turkish counterpart to express solidarity, condolences

Shafaq News/ Iraq's President Abdullatif Rashid on Friday called his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to express solidarity in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes which killed more than 20 thousand in southern Turkey and northwestern Syria.

According to the Iraqi presidency, President Rashid extended condolences to President Erdogan, the Turkish nation, and the families of the victims, wishing a speedy recovery to the victims.

Rashid expressed the solidarity of the Iraqi people and government with the Turkish people in their plight, the readout said.

The Turkish president, according to the readout, thanked President Rashid and the Iraqi people for their supporting position in the aftermath of the disaster.

The death toll in Turkey has reached a grim milestone, exceeding the number of people killed in a 1999 earthquake in Istanbul that had remained the most devastating in the country for decades.

The highest estimates put the 1999 death toll from the magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Istanbul at about 18,000.

On Friday, the death toll from the most recent series of quakes, which began on Monday, reached 18,342 in Turkey. At least 3,377 also died in Syria.

Turkey's geological location makes it prone to major earthquakes. In 1939, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in northeastern Turkey was estimated to have killed over 32,000 people.