I have been appointed to the Chief Representative of JICA Türkiye Office since January 2024 and am very much excited to work in Türkiye. In the past, I worked in several sections in the cooperations to Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Africa, and public relations and media responses.
One year has passed since the Türkiye-Syria earthquakes on February 6, 2023. I would like to once again express our sincere condolences to the many people affected by this tragic disaster, and hope for a speedy recovery and reconstruction.
As earthquake-prone countries, Türkiye and Japan have been cooperating with each other to respond to such disasters.
In 1923, when the Republic of Türkiye was founded, the situation in Japan affected by the Great Kanto Earthquake was widely reported in the Turkish media, and Türkiye sent relief funds through the Embassy of Japan. In response to the Erzincan Earthquake in Türkiye in 1939, Japan also sent relief fund to Türkiye.
In 1999, when Izmit Earthquake occurred, Japan dispatched rescue and medical teams and provided financial support of 23.6 billion Japanese Yen. During the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake in 2011, an emergency rescue and medical team was sent from Türkiye to Japan.
Furthermore, immediately after the Türkiye-Syria earthquakes in 2023, Japan dispatched a rescue team to Kahramanmaraş, the epicenter of the earthquake, and engaged in search and rescue operations for people inside collapsed buildings. In the meantime, the Government of Japan delivered relief supplies such as tents, blankets, and generators to the affected areas. After the rescue team finished its work, Japan also dispatched a medical team and a team consisted of various expertise to provide medical support, investigate the level damage to the affected areas, provide advice for reconstruction, and formulate projects for the reconstruction of the disaster affected region.
We have a long history of helping each other between Türkiye and Japan. In 1890, when the Ertuğrul, a warship of Türkiye (Ottoman Empire at that time) sunk near the seashore of Wakayama Prefecture on the way back to Türkiye, the villagers of Kushimoto rescued 69 sailors at the risk of their own lives.
In 1985, about 100 years after the incident of the Ertuğrul, when many Japanese citizens were stranded in Tehran during Iran Iraq war, Turkish government courageously sent airplanes to Tehran and saved 215 Japanese people. Turkish people still remember the past support for the Ertugrul warship given 130 years ago.
We, JICA, have been working as the implementing agency of Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) in collaboration with Turkish people for a long time. Our activities started in 1959, when the first Turkish trainees visited Japan, and we celebrated the 60th Anniversary of our ODA to Türkiye in 2019. During the long history of our cooperation, besides the emergency rescue activities mentioned above, in order to ensure early recovery and reconstruction in the areas affected by the 2023 Türkiye-Syria earthquakes, we have been cooperating to formulate reconstruction plans aimed at building cities even stronger than before the earthquake. Other cooperations include the cooperation for Bursa Metropolitan Municipality to formulate earthquake risk reduction and disaster prevention plans, and the project to formulate a system for the reduction of earthquake and tsunami damage while promoting collaboration and joint research between Turkish and Japanese universities.
Moreover, we have provided supports in various areas, from developing large infrastructure facilities such as Marmaray railways and Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge (the 2nd Bosphorus Bridge) in Istanbul, Agriculture, Fishery, Energy and so on.
Turkish economy has developed significantly. And now, Türkiye has been assisting other developing countries as a donor. JICA is currently building a new relationship with the Turkish governmental organizations as partners to support other countries.
In the meantime, JICA looks forward to building strong relationship with Türkiye to tackle global issues, as our mission is also to achieve quality and balanced growth, to realize human security, and to contribute to sustainable development.
The year 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Türkiye and Japan. With a belief that our current cooperative activities will lead to further trust between two countries for the next 100 years, I will make every effort to contribute to strengthening the relationship between Türkiye and Japan.
WATANABE Daisuke
Chief Representative
JICA Türkiye Office
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