Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged “shortcomings” in his government’s response to the devastating earthquake that killed over 15,000 people in Turkey and Syria on Wednesday.
The massive scope of the disaster, which destroyed thousands of structures and trapped an unknown number of people, has overwhelmed recovery efforts, which were already impeded by frigid temperatures.
Survivors have been forced to scramble for food and shelter, and in some cases, to watch helplessly while families begged for help and eventually went silent under the rubble.
“My nephew, sister-in-law, and sister-in-sister law’s are among the dead. They are stuck beneath the ruins, with no sign of life “Semire Coban, a kindergarten teacher in Hatay, Turkey, agreed.
“We are unable to contact them. We’re attempting to communicate with them, but they’re not responding… We’re waiting for assistance. It has now been 48 hours “She stated.
Even as the death toll continues to increase, searchers continued to retrieve survivors from the rubble three days after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which is already one of the deadliest this century.
As online criticism intensified, Erdogan visited one of the worst-affected areas, seismic epicentre Kahramanmaras, and admitted shortcomings in the response.
“There are, of course, flaws. The circumstances are obvious. It is impossible to be prepared for a calamity like this “He stated.
According to AFP journalists and the NetBlocks site monitoring group, Twitter was also unavailable on Turkish mobile networks.
The window for rescuers to identify survivors is closing as the effort approaches the 72-hour mark, which catastrophe experts consider to be the most likely time to save lives.
On Wednesday, rescuers removed youngsters from under a fallen structure in the devastated Turkish province of Hatay, where entire communities have been destroyed.
“All of a sudden, we heard voices, and owing to the excavator, we heard the voices of three people at the same time,” rescuer Alperen Cetinkaya explained.
“We expect more of them… the possibilities of getting people out alive are quite good,” he continued.
Officials and medics reported 12,391 people died in Turkey and at least 2,992 perished in Syria as a result of Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake, bringing the total to 15,383 – and experts worry the number will grow considerably.
The EU is arranging a donors summit in March in Brussels to mobilise worldwide help for Syria and Turkey.
“We are now racing against the clock to rescue lives together,” tweeted EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen.
“When a catastrophe like this strikes a people, no one should be left alone,” von der Leyen remarked.
We are now racing against the clock to save lives together.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 8, 2023
Soon we will provide relief aid, together.
Türkiye and Syria can count on the EU.
@SwedishPM and I will host a Donors' Conference early March in Brussels.
Let’s mobilise funds globally for the affected communities.
'People dying every second'
Because of the magnitude of the damage and the paucity of assistance reaching particular places, survivors stated they felt alone in responding to the disaster.
“Even buildings that did not fall sustained significant damage. There are now more people beneath the rubble than above it “In the rebel-held Syrian town of Jindayris, a local named Hassan, who did not offer his complete name, stated.
“Each fallen building had 400-500 people trapped beneath it, with barely 10 persons attempting to bring them out. There is also no machinery “He went on to say.
The White Helmets, leading attempts to rescue civilians buried under rubble in rebel-held areas of Syria, have pleaded for international support in their “battle against time”.
They have been working since the earthquake to retrieve people from the rubble of dozens of collapsed buildings in northwestern areas of war-torn Syria that are still not under the jurisdiction of the government.
A senior UN official has appealed for improved assistance access to rebel-held areas in the northwest, saying that relief supplies could soon run out.
“Put politics aside and let us do our humanitarian work,” El-Mostafa Benlamlih, the UN’s resident Syria coordinator, told AFP in an interview.
Syria appeals for EU help
The topic of aid to Syria is delicate, and the sanctioned government in Damascus made an official request for assistance to the EU, according to the EU’s commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic.
A decade of civil war and Syrian-Russian aerial bombardment had already damaged hospitals, brought the economy to a halt, and caused power, fuel, and water shortages.
According to Lenarcic, the European Commission is “encouraging” EU member countries to respond to Syria’s request for medical supplies and food, while also ensuring that any aid “is not misdirected” by President Bashar al-administration. Assad’s
Dozens of countries, including the United States, China, and the Gulf States, have committed to assist, and search and relief teams have already arrived.
The European Union was quick to send rescue crews to Turkey after a powerful earthquake shook the country on Monday near the Syrian border.
However, it first provided very limited support to Syria due to EU sanctions imposed on Assad’s administration since 2011 for its violent assault on protestors, which escalated into a civil war.
The Turkey-Syria border is one of the most active seismic zones on the planet.
The quake on Monday was the strongest in Turkey since 1939, when 33,000 people were killed in the eastern Erzincan region.
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