Haluk Tezcan

As it is known, we have experienced one of the most severe disasters in history. On February 6, we faced two devastating earthquakes that took place 9 hours apart. I wish God’s mercy to all our citizens who passed away in these earthquakes, give their relatives my condolences and wish a quick recovery to the injured. We are a special society that supports each other in such days and does not spare their support throughout the whole process. As a Turk, it is impossible not to be proud of this support and help. After this disaster, we are going through a nationwide difficult period as a result of earthquakes that heavily affected 10 provinces in the southeastern region of our country.

We, the Turkish Flour Industrialists’ Federation, have been mobilizing all our means since the first day of the disaster to heal the wounds by working in coordination with public enterprises to overcome this difficult period with our industrialists. As flour industrialists, in coordination with authorized institutions such as AFAD, Red Crescent, governorships and municipalities, especially the fMinistry of Agriculture and Forestry and Turkish Grain Board (TMO), we have strived to stand by our people by delivering all the necessary materials, especially flour and bread, to the regions of need and to offer our support with the stocks that we can deliver urgently in relevant regions. 

Since the first day of the earthquake disaster, we have transported approximately 5.5 million sacks of flour and nearly 2 million loaves of bread to the regions of need. This is only the recorded amount. We know that the industrialist has sent much more. We continue to send flour to producers and mobile bakeries that currently produce 10, 20 and 30 thousand loaves of bread per day. Flour and bread form the basis of our diet. In such a disaster, we have shown great care and effort to ensure that our citizens do not experience difficulties in accessing basic needs. While aid is being sent to the region in coordination with AFAD, we are still giving our full support and time to the earthquake region so that there is no problem in the access of the people of the region to bread and other bakery products. 

During the coordination phase, I was in constant contact with TFIF, under which I serve as the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and affiliated regional associations in coordination with city centers, villages, towns and hard-to-reach areas in the earthquake zone that need flour and bakery products. We prepared trucks full of flour sacks to be transported to many places and sent them to the relevant points. We know that we have a lot to do. With this awareness, I would like to state that our aid and support will continue uninterruptedly and that we will stand by our nation until every earthquake victim can eat hot bread in their homes.

After the earthquake disaster in our country, heavily damaged and destroyed structures started to be rebuilt. Industrialists’ factories were damaged and we lost our stakeholders in the region. We, the TFIF Board of Directors, will visit them in the region. In the next period, we must work as a country with all our might to heal our wounds and prevent repetition of such suffering, and we must spend all our time bringing the regional population back to their old days. In this context, we, flour industrialists, have been providing all our financial and moral support to the region since the first day. As TUSAF, I would like to express my gratitude to our citizens living both at home and abroad, our stakeholders, public institutions and organizations, and all our philanthropists for their support since the first day of the earthquake. Wishing that such suffering will not happen again, I wish God’s mercy on our citizens who lost their lives in the earthquake, offer condolence to their relatives, and wish a quick recovery to the injured.

With deep sadness and respect...