STORY: (NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS WITHOUT SPEAKER TEXT) Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday in Berlin: “These are horrific images that have reached us from Turkey and Syria since Monday. The severe earthquakes have destroyed entire cities. More more than 17,000 people have died and tens of thousands injured – men, women and children who slept peacefully in their beds as disaster struck.” // “Hour by hour the number of victims increases. We see how survivors mourn their loved ones, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. We see people making their way through – often with their bare hands digging the rubble to look for their loved ones. We see dramatic scenes that are hard to bear even from afar: a father who is holding his dead daughter’s hand and doesn’t want to let her go. Today I want to address the many people here in Germany, who have relatives and friends in Turkey or in Syria, to the many who are now mourning, crying, hoping and afraid all over our republic, who often feel powerless because they cannot lend a hand in the disaster area. I say to all of you today: We see your suffering, we hear your complaints. Your pain is our pain.”