The death toll from the earthquake in Turkey and Syria continues to rise: Erdoğan declares three months of emergency and faces the first protests. A refugee tragedy unfolds.
A newborn baby girl was pulled alive from the rubble of a house in northern Syria after relatives found her still connected by the umbilical cord to her mother, who died in the violent earthquake that struck Anatolia on Monday night. The baby is the sole survivor of her family, who lived in the rebel-controlled city of Jindayris. "We were digging when we heard crying," a relative of the child explained. A small miracle, but practically the only piece of good news to emerge from the second night of digging and sleeping in the open, following the devastating earthquake that struck southern Turkey and Syria, and whose toll is growing to ever more enormous proportions with every passing hour: the updated death toll from the earthquake stands at 21,000, combining both sides of the Turkish-Syrian border. But according to a United Nations estimate, the final figure could be at least double that.
The Turkish government led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who visited several cities in the Hatay region where the death toll has already exceeded three thousand, declared three months of state of emergency and a week of national mourning. In the meantime, more than 48 hours after the earthquake, the mood among part of the affected population is beginning to shift from shock to anger. The authoritarian characteristics of the Turkish government are also resurfacing: police have detained 23 people "for sharing provocative posts about the earthquake on social networks" — sarcastic comments and complaints over the alleged delays in rescue efforts.
Erdoğan himself moved to dismiss criticism of the rescue operation, calling it "slander from dishonourable people: none of our citizens has been left alone." On the Syrian side, too, patience is wearing thin, with rescue efforts conspicuously absent and nights spent in the open where temperatures drop to as low as 20 degrees below zero. Italian NGO Still I Rise condemns the situation: "Three days have passed and no foreign aid has managed to reach north-west Syria. Yet today the bodies of some Syrians who died in Turkey arrived. Essential aid to save human lives cannot get through, but corpses can? International powers must stop negotiating humanitarian aid as a political weapon; all border crossings from Turkey to north-western Syria must be opened and immediate aid sent at once."
Breaking news from North West Syria‼️ Breaking news dal Nord Ovest Siria ‼️Sono passati tre giorni e nessun aiuto estero è riuscito ad arrivare nel nord-ovest della Siria. Oggi però sono arrivati i corpi di alcuni siriani morti in Turchia.GLI AIUTI ESSENZIALI PER SALVARE VITE UMANE NON POSSONO ARRIVARE, MA I CADAVERI SÌ?Le potenze internazionali devono smetterla di negoziare l'aiuto umanitario come arma politica, bisogna aprire tutti i valichi di frontiera dalla Turchia alla Siria nord-occidentale e inviare SUBITO AIUTI IMMEDIATI.#NWSyria #earthquake #terremoto #humanitariancorridors
Posted by Still I Rise on Wednesday, February 8, 2023
In addition to Turkey, 18 countries are actively contributing to the relief effort in some form, including Italy. Compounding the situation is the fact that of the 12 million people living in the affected areas of south-eastern Turkey, two million are Syrian refugees who were already living mostly in tents and makeshift structures in camps on both sides of the border. To these are now added those displaced by the earthquake, and the 8,000 tents set up by the Turkish government do not appear to be sufficient. In the affected areas of north-western Syria, an estimated 4.6 million people are living in conditions of food insecurity and will need additional food assistance.
Action Aid, which has been operating in the area for several months, notes that both countries are facing a severe economic situation. In Syria, from 2020 to 2022, food prices rose by 532 per cent, pushing more than 12 million Syrians into food insecurity. In January 2023, inflation in Turkey reached 57.68 per cent and rental costs increased, eroding people's purchasing power. It is therefore highly likely that this emergency will have a significant impact on the already weakened economies of both countries."
Meanwhile China, which has offered 4.4 million dollars in aid to Syria for reconstruction, today called on the United States to "set aside its geopolitical obsession and immediately lift the unilateral sanctions on Syria and open the door to humanitarian assistance in the face of this catastrophe." Global geopolitics now runs through the earthquake as well.
