French President Emmanuel Macron thanked Türkiye in Turkish on July 28 after Ankara sent two firefighting aircraft to assist crews battling wildfires in France.
“Teşekkürler Türkiye!” Macron wrote on X, sharing an announcement by Agriculture and Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı.
Yumaklı said Türkiye assigned two aircraft at France’s request under instructions from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The deployment followed a separate mission involving two Turkish aircraft sent to Spain.
“Türkiye, with its capabilities and experience, is fulfilling its responsibility to protect not only its own forests but also those of other countries when needed,” Yumaklı said.
He said Türkiye would continue cross-border cooperation against wildfires and wished the deployed crews and teams on the ground success.
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations separately thanked Türkiye for sending aircraft to Spain.
Sharing Yumaklı’s announcement, the directorate also wrote in Turkish, “Teşekkürler Türkiye.”
The EU said Türkiye was among the countries providing aircraft to France and Spain through the bloc’s civil protection mechanism.
More than 300,000 people have been evacuated across the two countries as large wildfires continue.
