It is a crisis within a crisis for Syria. An earthquake collapsed the country that already bears the scars of a nearly 12-year-long war. Resulting in food shortages, economic collapse, a humanitarian crisis, and a recent cholera outbreak. …
While Turkey’s grief is turning into anger, much of it is directed against Mr. Erdogan’s government. Which has spent years consolidating control over Turkey’s institutions, including the country’s disaster-relief organizations.
As of Feb. 23, the death toll in Syria and Turkey had surpassed 49,000. In Turkey, the authorities said that more than 43,000 people had died; in Syria, the death toll crossed 5,500. According to figures from the United Nations and many still missing in the country’s worst modern disaster. The WHO describes the earthquakes in Turkey as the worst natural disaster in a century in what it characterizes as its Europe region.
Rescuers pulled earthquake survivors from the shattered remnants of buildings. Including some who endured more than 100 hours trapped under crushed concrete after the disaster slammed Turkey and Syria.
The disaster of the decade
On 6 February 2023 at 4.17 am local time, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake occurred near the city of Gaziantep in southern Turkey. Its tremors were felt in the provinces of Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Iraq.
Thousands of buildings destroyed or rendered unstable. Leaving hundreds of thousands of people without shelter in rain, snow, and temperatures that often dip below freezing. According to relief agencies, millions are in need of aid; in Syria alone. The United Nations said that as many as 5.3 million might have lost their homes.
In the bitter cold, rescue workers pulled thousands of survivors from the rubble. But experts say that the chances of rescuing more decline sharply a few days after a quake. Even after that period, there have been some miraculous rescues. In recent days, desperation has increasingly set in as the rescue missions have turned to recovery.
The situation for survivors in Syria and Turkey is dire. With people reluctant to return to their homes and using bonfires of wreckage to stay warm. Huddling in cars, and suffering frequent power outages and shortages of fuel. They are also short on food and medical supplies.
The Aid and Politics
Turkey has imposed a three-month state of emergency in 10 provinces. Meanwhile, the national emergency agency has distributed a huge quantity of tents and mobilized more than 12,000 vehicles. Including excavators, cranes, and tow trucks with the help of more than 230,000 relief workers. Dozens of countries have sent teams and supplies, and in some places, the local authorities have contributed to rescue and relief efforts. A makeshift healthcare system has sprung up amid the devastation.
The quake zone in Turkey stretches across more than 200 miles, from the Mediterranean in the south across mountains and to the east-central highlands and into northwestern Syria. Snow-covered mountain passes, buckled highways, and buildings that collapsed over roads have all delayed the arrival of rescue teams and aid.
Getting help to Syria has been complicated by the country’s civil war. The division of territory in its northwest, and the acrimonious relations between President Bashar al-Assad and many Western nations.
A handful of help
In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the only United Nations-approved crossing for transporting international aid into northwestern Syria. For a time, not functioning because of damage in the area, according to U.N. officials.
The United Nations’ top aid official said on Feb. 12 that aid efforts so far had “failed the people of northwest Syria.” “They rightly feel abandoned,” the official, Martin Griffiths, wrote on Twitter from the Turkey-Syria border. Rescue workers in northwestern Syria say that without more help from the outside world, there was little they could do. “We felt helpless, just helpless,” said Ali Obeid, 28, a member of the White Helmets.
Much of the international aid to Syria from the United Nations and other agencies flows through the capital, Damascus, allowing the government of Mr. al-Assad to limit what goes to opposition-held areas. United Nations agencies must get permission to then deliver some of the aid across front lines, to opposition-held areas, requests that are often denied.
On Feb. 13, Mr. al-Assad agreed to the opening of two additional border crossings from Turkey into opposition-held territory in northwest Syria to allow the United Nations to deliver humanitarian relief to millions of earthquake victims, U.N. and Syrian officials.
The decision, which would let aid flow for three months, was the first time that Mr. al-Assad had cooperated in opening opposition-held territory to such assistance since Syria’s civil war began in 2011.
The Syrian government has blamed U.S. sanctions for deepening the humanitarian disaster the country has suffered since the earthquake. Those sanctions do not target humanitarian aid, and the State Department has rejected calls to lift them, saying that aid efforts were not impeded by the policy.
Aya: The One Who Survived
Baby born in the rubble of Syria earthquake
A Syrian baby girl whose mother died after giving birth to her under the rubble of their home during earthquake now has a name: Aya, Arabic for “a sign from God”.
With her parents and all her siblings killed, her great-uncle, Salah al-Badran, will take her in once she is released from the hospital.
However, his own house in the northwest Syrian town of Jenderis was destroyed, too. He and his family managed to escape the one-story building, but now he and his household of 11 people are living in a tent, he told the Associated Press.
“After the earthquake, there’s no one able to live in his house or building. Only 10% of the buildings here are safe to live in and the rest are unliveable,” he said, communicating via voice messages.
Rescue workers in Jenderis discovered Aya on Monday afternoon, more than 10 hours after the quake hit, as they were digging through the wreckage of the five-story apartment building where her parents lived. Buried under the concrete, the baby still was connected by the umbilical cord to her mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya, who was dead along with her husband and four other children. The baby was rushed to a hospital in the nearby town of Afrin.
Abu Hadiya probably gave birth to the girl and then died a few hours before they were discovered, said Dr. Hani Maarouf at Cihan hospital in Afrin. “We named her Aya, so we could stop calling her a newborn baby,” said Maarouf. He said her condition is improving by the day and there was no damage to her spine, as initially feared.
Aya is one of untold numbers of orphans left by Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake, which killed more than 21,000 people in northern Syria and south-eastern Turkey. The pre-dawn quake brought apartment buildings in their thousands down as residents were roused from sleep.
But despite days passing since tens of thousands of people, or more, were trapped in the rubble, rescues are still being made. In Turkey, over 80 hours after the quake hit, 16-year-old Melda Adtas was pulled out alive, leaving her overjoyed father in tears and the grieving nation cheering a rare piece of good news after Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor…
‘Miracle’ rescues that keep hope alive amid destruction
A week after the twin quakes jolted Turkey and Syria, several newborns and toddlers were pulled out alive from complicated and extremely exhausting digging.
Visuals of rescue workers pulling out infants, toddlers and children from the deepest parts of the concrete rubble go viral on social media, with people from all across the world describing such stories of survival as “miracles”.
Here are some of the miraculous rescues of children that surprised netizens in the past few days.
- Hamza, a seven-month-old baby, was rescued in Hatay province, one of the most affected regions in Türkiye, after being stuck under the rubble for more than 140 hours since the first quake hit the country.
- Aliye Dagli, a two-year-old baby girl, was also pulled out alive from the rubble in Hatay thanks to the search-and-rescue team and AFAD volunteers’ efforts almost 133 hours after the devastating earthquakes. The baby, who was taken to the ambulance in the arms of the medical staff, was treated.
- A baby estimated to be about two months old was found alive 128 hours after the quake in Hatay. The baby’s survival for nearly five days without any injuries was a powerful visual that moved people to tears and warmed many hearts. Efforts to identify the baby are underway since the infant’s parents are still missing.
- A 15-month-old Yusuf Huseyin was taken out after the 105th hour of the earthquake. About 20 minutes later, his 7-year-old brother Mohammed Huseyin was pulled out from the same pile of concrete slabs of what used to be a three-floored building in Hatay.
- Just 10 days old Yagız Ulas may be the youngest earthquake survivor, who was freed from the wreckage in Hatay with his mother. The duo spent 101 hours in the rubble, braving the freezing winter chill.
- In Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the devastating earthquake, one-year-old Raha and her mother Ela Hamoko of Syrian origin were rescued after being trapped in the debris for 81 hours.
- Five-year-old Hazal Guner was rescued in Hatay after being trapped in the debris for 72 hours. When asked if she wanted to drink water when she was pulled out of the wreckage, she replied, “No, I haven’t been examined yet”. She was taken with her mother to the hospital for a medical examination.
Unaccompanied infants
The Ministry of Family and Social Services of Türkiye stated that they had put all the unaccompanied children in state-run shelters.
It said proper procedures will be initiated to match the unaccompanied minors and children with suitable foster homes to provide a stable and secure environment for them to grow and thrive.
So far 263 children have been saved from the rubble, according to the Ministry of Family and Social Services. Among them, 162 children are receiving medical treatment in various hospitals and 101 are being sent to shelters run by the ministry.
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