ATHENS, October 30. /TASS/. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday in order to express condolences over the death of people as a result of a strong earthquake that rocked the Greek island of Samos and Turkey’s Izmir. He wrote about this on his Twitter page.

"I just called President Erdogan to offer my condolences for the tragic loss of life from the earthquake that struck both our countries. Whatever our differences, these are times when our people need to stand together," the statement said.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias contacted his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. According to the statement of Greece’s Foreign Ministry on Twitter, "Nikos Dendias reached out to his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu expressing Greece’s readiness to immediately send to Turkey members of the disaster relief unit, in order to help in extracting people trapped in buildings." The Greek top diplomat also wrote on his own Twitter page that his thoughts are with residents of Samos and those who participate in the rescue effort in the aftermath of the earthquake.

According to Greece’s ERT1 TV channel, the Turkish side has not requested yet the deployment of Greek rescuers in Turkey.

In previous years Greece and Turkey helped each other rescue people buried under the rubble as a result of destructive earthquakes. This aid was even called in Greece "the earthquake diplomacy.".