Following their freely expressed appreciation of the Greek rescue effort in the Turkish earthquake zone, media and officials in Türkiye have been quick to extend their sympathy to the Greek nation after the train crash at Tempi in the Larissa region, which is now known to have killed at least 57 people. Another 56 were still missing as of Thursday 2nd March.
On Wednesday President Erdogan offered condolences to the Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, saying that he was “deeply saddened” by the loss of lives and wished a speedy recovery to those injured in the collision. The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also phoned his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias to extend his condolences.
Skai TV’s correspondent in Istanbul, Manolis Kostidis, shows the front page of the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet reporting the Tempi train crash, with the Greek headline “Perastika Yitona”, which translates roughly as “Get well soon, neighbour”. 02-03-23
The Turkish news site CNN Turk posted a message of sympathy: “Neighbouring Greece is recovering from the biggest railway accident in its history. We send our condolences for the 46 people who lost their lives and wish strength to their loved ones. On this sad day we stand beside the fraternal people of Greece. We share your pain.” They also uploaded a video of Maria Fantouri’s rendering of “Miroloi” (“Lament”), a song well known to both nations which mourns the untimely death of a 20-year-old “palikari”. (Hear her singing it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAYZaX8tekk, with lyrics in Greek.) According to the Middle East news site Al-monitor.com, Turkish social media users “praised Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis’ resignation after the crash, blasting the Turkish government for not taking responsibility for the delayed quake response.” “We lost 50,000 people and no-one resigned,” one person said.
Meanwhile messages of condolence have been pouring in to the Greek Foreign ministry from all over the world as well as to Greek diplomatic posts abroad. On Thursday the Foreign minister Nikos Dendias had a meeting with the new Canadian ambassador to Greece, Karine Asselin, to discuss matters of mutual interest. She conveyed the condolences of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and announced on Twitter that the flag at the Canadian Embassy in Athens was being flown at half mast “in solidarity with the people of Greece”.
Also on Thursday, Nikos Dendias posted a graphic list of all the countries which had so far sent their condolences, with the message: “A warm thank you to all the citizens around the world who expressed their solidarity with the Greek people”.