TEHRAN -- Oscar-winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi has sent a message of condolence to the victims of the two earthquakes jolt regions in northwestern Iran on Saturday.
“Dear Azeri compatriots, today many people grieve for the deaths of your beloved ones and also are deeply grieved over the calamity that has struck you,” Farhadi said in the message published by the Persian service of ISNA on Monday.
“Perhaps, expressing sympathy looks so puny to ease the everlasting calamity, but this sympathy and feeling of being beside you is invaluable during today’s isolation and remoteness. I am also very sad for the calamity and wish you patience and peace,” he added.
Farhadi is currently in Paris to prepare the post production preliminaries for his next project, which is scheduled to begin there in autumn.
In addition, the Iranian Artists Forum and several singers and musicians have separately sent messages of condolence to the victims of the earthquakes.
Messages from vocalists Salar Aqili and Alireza Qorbani, pop singers Reza Sadeqi and Babak Jahanbakhsh, and tombak virtuoso Peyman Nasehpur were published by ISNA.
Over 300 people were killed and about 5000 people were injured during the quakes 60 kilometers and 49 kilometers of northeast of Tabriz in West Azerbaijan Province.
Over 1000 villages in the area were affected by the earthquakes, Reuters reported quoting a Red Crescent official, Ahmadreza Shajiei.
Some 130 villages suffered more than 70 percent damage and 20 villages were completely destroyed, he said.
MMS/YAW
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