No casualties in Turkey's last Armenian village

There are no casualties or major damage to buildings after the twin earthquakes on 6 February in Turkey's only Armenian village, Turkish news agency DHA reported on Tuesday.

Merely the outer walls of a church was destroyed, local administrator Berc Kartun said, adding that the 17-meter-tall "Tree of Moses," which is believed to have sprouted from Moses's staff, did not receive any damage.

Vakifli, a village of 130, is some 5 km to the Samandag district in Turkey's southern border province of Hatay that is among the worst hit places in the earthquake zone. The village is the single remaining Armenian rural settlement in Turkey, which was the native homeland of the Armenian people till the genocide in 1915.

Berc Kartun said that there are only minor damages in some of the houses, but the villagers still spend the nights in tents as a precaution against aftershocks.

He noted that the village received large amounts of aid, including three lorries of food and other items from the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul.