Ahmadinejad condoles with Turkey over earthquake casualties

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed his condolences to Turkish people and government over getting killed of large a number of Turkish citizens in Sunday quake.Sending a message of condolence to the Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Monday, President Ahmadinejad expressed sympathy of the the Iranian government and nation for the loss of lives of a number of Turkish citizens in the incident. Iran on Monday voiced preparedness to provide aid for the victims of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Turkey and to treat the injured people in Iranian hospitals. The earthquake struck in the province of Van, about 1,300 miles from Istanbul, at 1:41 pm local time Sunday and was followed by more than 80 aftershocks. Thwe government officials said that Turkey's largest earthquake in more than a decade may have killed hundreds of people, destroying apartment buildings and damaging 4,000 homes in the eastern province by the Iranian border. Several people injured in Sunday's earthquake in Turkey have been hospitalized in the northwestern Iranian city of Khoy, in West Azarbaijan Province. It is the strongest temblor to hit Turkey in almost a decade. In 1999, about 18,000 people died in two powerful earthquakes that struck the northwestern part of Turkey.