TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As Taiwan’s search and rescue team concluded their mission in Turkey and were on their way home on Wednesday (Feb. 15), Turkey's representative to Taiwan Muhammed Berdibek thanked Taiwanese for treating Turkish earthquake victims as if they were their compatriots.

Berdibek published a letter of thanks to Taiwanese via CNA on Wednesday. He said he first wanted to express his sincere gratitude to the public in Taiwan for the love and care they had directed toward the earthquake victims.

Berdibek said since the earthquake struck on Feb. 6, Turkey has received assistance from countries all over the world, including search and rescue teams that arrived quickly, one after another. They cooperated with each other in the disaster area regardless of nationalities, and tried their best to save as many lives as possible, the letter read.

Berdibek particularly recognized the contribution of Taiwan’s search and rescue team. He wrote that the team rescued three survivors. One of them was rescued after 198 hours, but another unfortunately died of serious injuries in the hospital.

He said since the first day after the earthquake, the Turkish Trade Office in Taipei has received numerous phone calls and over 8,000 emails from people all over Taiwan, who either expressed concern about the disaster or asked how to help with disaster relief.