Hands stop, voices die out, vehicles stop. And hope is fading, two weeks after the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria. Turkey has made the dramatic decision to halt the search for survivors in almost all areas affected by the quake except the two hardest-hit provinces of Kahramanmaras and Hatay. The number of victims, which is over 46,000 between the two countries, is therefore likely to continue to rise. The state of emergency remains in place and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reached Turkey to bring Washington’s support and announced an additional $100 million in aid.
“The United States will continue to stand by the Turkish and Syrian people,” he said. “The searches have ended in many provinces. They are continuing in about forty buildings in the provinces of Kahramanmaras and Hatay,” announced Unus Sezer, head of the Turkish government agency Afad. “We believe we will complete the search and rescue operations by tomorrow night.” The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that devastated the south of the country and Syria killed 40,689 people in Turkey alone, while over 5,800 people died in Syria, according to the latest official report from AFAD.
According to Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay, 105,000 buildings collapsed or were severely damaged in the quake and more than 6,000 subsequent aftershocks, including one measuring 6.6 and 40 with an intensity of 5 to 6, the last just Saturday night. “We are facing perhaps the greatest catastrophe in our history. The damage caused by the earthquakes and aftershocks was not limited to the 11 provinces affected,” Sezer added.
Turkey’s announcement comes after no survivors were pulled from the rubble for more than 24 hours. The latest miracle happened on Saturday, 296 hours after the earthquake, when a couple was rescued in Antioch in Hatay province, where seven people were taken out alive over the past 3 days, including the 12-year-old boy who later died in a Ambulance while he is taken to the hospital. Also found in the same city was the body of Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu, to whom the sporting world continues to send its condolences, most recently Inter striker Romelu Lukaku, his team-mate at Everton FC. After the relief efforts are over, Turkey rejects virtually every last-minute miracle. And now we are thinking about reconstruction, for which all possible international help is needed. For example, after flying over the devastation in Hatay, Blinken announced that new earthquake relief efforts “will be relocated soon. Unfortunately, it’s less about search and rescue and more about long-term recovery.” For the US official, “reconstruction will take a tremendous effort, but we are committed to supporting it.”
The United States has contributed $185 million in aid so far. But aid is never enough for such a disaster, while MSF denounces that it is even less in Syria than it was before the earthquake. It’s not just the earthquake that brings Blinken to Turkey for the first time since he took office two years ago. The visit was actually scheduled before February 6, which upset the agenda. After meeting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at Incirlik Air Base, Blinken will meet President Erdogan on Monday. Among the dossiers is the possible sale of F-16 fighter jets promised by President Joe Biden to Turkey but blocked by opposition in Congress, along with Finland and Sweden joining NATO, on which Ankara’s rejection is pending.
Angelo Zen’s body has returned to Italy, the Italian entrepreneur, victim of the earthquake in Turkey, died when the hotel he was staying in Kahramanmaras for professional reasons collapsed. Zen’s coffin, residing in Martellago (Venice), was transported to Romano D’Ezzelino (Vicenza), where he was born and where his mother lives and where it was agreed that only close relatives could visit him. According to the mayor of the city of Vicenza, the funeral service will probably be celebrated next week in Romano in a strictly private form according to the will of the family.
Earthquake in Turkey, contingent of firefighters returned to Italy
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