71 soldiers from the Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit(AFDRU) of the Austrian Armed Forces returned from disaster relief operations following the earthquake in Turkey on Thursday. The troops landed at Vienna-Schwechat Airport in the afternoon and were welcomed by Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner and Turkish Ambassador Ozan Ceyhun, among others. It was time to say thank you, emphasized Tanner in a speech at the airport.
The disaster relief workers landed on the tarmac in Schwechat in an Austrian Airlines plane at around 4.30 pm. There, Tanner, Ceyhun and Chief of Staff Rudolf Striedinger welcomed the AFDRU contingent. In her speech, Tanner said that the relief force, consisting of members of the Austrian Armed Forces, mountain rescue teams and fire departments, had “achieved great things in Turkey and given people hope”. She referred to nine people rescued and 52 injured people treated.
Overwhelming reception of our AFDRU #Bundesheer soldiers at the airport in Vienna. pic.twitter.com/PixoB6Sc1W
– Michael Bauer (@Bundesheerbauer) February 16, 2023
The army’s equipment, which weighs around 25 tons, is to be brought back to Vienna in the coming days. However, the tents have been made available to Turkey free of charge, according to the Ministry of Defense. The remaining twelve members of the team are to follow in the coming days, it said. “The scale of the destruction was enormous”, said Major Bernhard Lindenberg, head of operations, in an interview with the Austria Press Agency. “A mission like this is always an emotional burden,” added Captain Raphael Schuh, deputy contingent commander. On the ground, he and the entire team had experienced the extent of the grief among the population at first hand, said Schuh.
Nevertheless, they also experienced enormous gratitude in the disaster area, reported Markus Gruber from the Upper Austrian fire department in Traun, who was on duty with a rescue dog. “Donations of food were brought to us, even though many people there had nothing left themselves.” Numerous members of the Turkish community then greeted the AFDRU contingent in the arrivals hall at the airport. The helpers arrived to frenetic cheers and chants of “Austria”. “The help arrived particularly quickly,” said Ceyhan, who presented each member of the team with a gift. A total of 83 people were sent to the disaster area on Tuesday last week. More than 42,000 deaths have been counted so far in Turkey and neighboring Syria. The Turkish disaster service AFAD reported on Thursday that 36,187 people had been killed by the earth tremors. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported 5,900 deaths in Syria. According to AFAD, there have been more than 4,300 aftershocks so far.
