ANKARA
A Turkish aid agency has handed the keys to repaired houses that were damaged by floods last May in Bosnia and Herzegovina to their owners on Thursday.
In total, owners of 25 repaired houses in the Maglaj province were welcomed into their homes in a ceremony organized by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, or TIKA.
“Turkey stands by the people of this region during their hard times,” Balkans and Eastern Europe coordinator Mahmut Cevik said after the ceremony. “We will be repairing 300 more houses. We allocated nearly 2 million euros ($2.5 million) for the repairs.”
Meanwhile Maglaj mayor Mehmed Mustabasic stated that other NGOs alongside TIKA had helped the disaster victims.
“In Maglaj we have repaired 640 houses so far with the help of several NGOs,” he said. “There are 700 more houses needed to be repaired.”
Heavy rainfall caused the worst regional flooding in 120 years in the Balkans last May.
Dozens of people were killed and thousands others were left homeless.
Established in 1992, Turkey's government-run TIKA agency is responsible for implementing Turkey's developmental cooperation policies overseas.
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