Nfter the severe earthquakes in the Turkish-Syrian border area with thousands of deaths, many more people are suspected to be under the rubble. Thousands of buildings collapsed, more than 4,200 people died, according to information from Tuesday night. According to previous information, more than 15,000 people were injured in southern Turkey and northern Syria. Numerous countries promised support, and aid teams from Germany also set off on Monday.
Temperatures in the disaster area are around freezing. Many people cannot return to their homes because they have collapsed or it would be too dangerous to return given the numerous aftershocks. According to the aid organization Care, an impending snowstorm could significantly aggravate the situation in the earthquake areas. Many roads are impassable. Among other things, Turkey asked its NATO partners for three field hospitals suitable for extreme weather conditions and personnel to set them up.
The situation is dramatic. The power went out in Hatay in southern Turkey, an eyewitness reported on Tuesday to the German Press Agency. Help is urgently needed. The petrol stations ran out of petrol and there was no bread to buy. The electricity also failed in the neighboring province of Osmaniye, said a reporter from the broadcaster CNN Türk.
In the southeastern Turkish metropolis of Diyarbakir, many people spent the night outside, in schools or mosques, as a dpa employee reported. “People are afraid to go back to their homes,” he said. Several aftershocks were felt and it was bitterly cold. The tents of the civil protection authority Afad are not heated and are not sufficient.
Many residents of Diyarbakir tried to get into the villages. The houses there are usually one-storey and are therefore considered safer. “There’s tension, people really don’t know what to do,” he said.
Thousands of helpers in action
Relatives and rescue workers searched for victims until late at night. The Ministry of Health sent around 4,200 helpers to the disaster area, said the Turkish Minister of Health, Fahrettin Koca, on Twitter late Monday evening. Injured and sick earthquake victims would first receive medical care in tents and then be transferred to hospitals, the minister said in another tweet. We are there with all our strength to alleviate the suffering. The Turkish Vice President, Fuat Oktay, announced late Monday evening that 7,840 people had already been rescued from the rubble.
The death toll has meanwhile risen to more than 4,200. The chairman of the Turkish civil protection authority Afad, Yunus Sezer, gave the number of deaths in his own country as 2,921 on Tuesday night. In addition, 15,834 “our citizens” were injured. According to the Ministry of Health and the rescue organization White Helmets, at least 1,300 people died in Syria on Monday evening.
According to Afad, the main tremor on Monday morning had a magnitude of 7.7 and the epicenter was in Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey. At noon, a 7.5-magnitude tremor shook the same region, according to the Kandilli earthquake station. The Turkish civil protection authority Afad recorded more than 180 aftershocks on Monday and warned of more.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke of the worst earthquake since 1939 and announced a week of national mourning. The geologist Charlotte Krawczyk from the Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam told ARD that there hadn’t been such a large earthquake in the affected area for around 900 years. It is not possible to predict whether and when further major earthquakes will follow.
Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
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Destruction in pictures
Despite tensions with Turkey, Greece sent a rescue team with sniffer dogs to the earthquake area on Monday. The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) is preparing to deliver emergency generators, tents and blankets, announced Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) on Monday. Emergency shelters and water treatment facilities could also be provided. EU countries want to coordinate with each other. Aid pledges also came from Great Britain, India, Pakistan, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Ukraine, which had been attacked by Russia, and the USA.
US President Joe Biden personally pledged support for Erdogan. The two spoke on the phone on Monday, the White House said. In the conversation, Biden assured that the United States was providing NATO ally Turkey with “any necessary support” to deal with the tragedy. Rescue teams from the US would be quickly dispatched to Turkey to support rescue and recovery work in the earthquake area and to help local people.
One of the hardest hit areas by the earthquake was the rebel-held Idlib region of Syria. This is likely to complicate emergency government aid there. After more than eleven years of civil war in Syria, government troops of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad are again in control of around two-thirds of the country.