Ankara (Xinhua): Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday Turkey is ready to offer assistance to the quake-hit Japan, local media reported.
“Japan has faced a massive disaster. Although it is an industrialized country, we are ready to do our utmost to assist Japanese authorities,” the Anatolia news agency quoted Davutoglu as telling a joint press conference here with United Nations Development Programme Administrator Helen Clark.
He said he would call his Japanese counterpart later in the day to offer Turkey’s help.
There were no immediate reports of casualties among Turkish citizens in Japan and no damage was caused to the Turkish embassy building, he said.
According to earlier reports, the 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit Japan’s northeastern Honshu island at about 2:46 p.m. local time ( 0546 GMT) on Friday, killing at least 16 people and injuring numerous others.
