The balance sheet of the earthquake which struck Turkey and Syria continues to grow and exceeded Thursday 15,000 dead. Rising criticism in Turkey has forced Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to acknowledge shortcomings in the government’s response.
On the ground, rescuers have been working in freezing cold for two days following the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that shook southeast Turkey and neighboring northern Syria at dawn on Monday, followed by powerful followingshocks. Bad weather complicates the task of rescue while the first 72 hours are crucial to find survivors, according to the head of the Turkish Red Crescent, Kerem Kinik.
In the Turkish province of Hatay (south), hard hit by the earthquake, children and adolescents have been removed from the rubble of a building. “Suddenly we heard voices and thanks to the excavator (…) we might immediately hear three people at the same time”, tells AFP one of the rescuers, Alperen Cetinkayanous.
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In this province, the city of Antakya (ancient Antioch) is in ruins, drowned in a thick cloud of dust due to clearing machines digging through the rubble. “Antakya is over”, repeat residents. As far as the eye can see, there are only totally or partially collapsed buildings. Even those who are still holding are deeply cracked and no one dares to stay there.
The official global casualty count reaches more than 15,000 dead, with nearly 50,000 injured in Turkey and 5,000 in Syria.
“Where is the state?”
Turkey officially deplores at least 12,391 dead. This is the worst toll since the 1999 earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.4 and which left 17,000 dead, including a thousand in Istanbul.
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At the epicenter of the earthquake, in Kahramanmaras, a city of more than a million devastated and buried under snow, no help, no help had arrived on Tuesday. “Where is the state? Where is he? (…) It’s been two days and we haven’t seen anyone. (…) The children froze to death,” protested Ali, who still hoped to see his brother and nephew once more, trapped in the ruins of their building.
In Adiyaman, another city in southern Turkey, there is still no rescuer or equipment in some disaster areas, noted an AFP journalist. The volunteers are doing their best but anger is rising in the population. “Of course there are gaps, it is impossible to be prepared for such a disaster,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited the province of Hatay, on the Syrian border, pleaded on Wednesday. . “A few dishonest and dishonorable people have published false statements such as + we have not seen soldiers or police,” he denounced.
Turkish social media is flooded with messages from people complaining regarding a lack of rescue efforts and searches for victims in their areas, especially in the Hatay region.
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Twitter inaccessible in Turkey
Turkish police have arrested a dozen people since Monday’s earthquake over social media posts criticizing the government’s handling of the disaster. Twitter was inaccessible on Wednesday and internet governance watchdog netblocks.org said access to the social network was restricted “via several internet service providers in Turkey”.
International aid began arriving on Tuesday, with dozens of countries offering their services to Ankara including those from the European Union and the Gulf, the United States, China and even Ukraine which, despite the Russian invasion , sent 87 rescuers.
In Syria, aid is slow to arrive
In Syria, 2,992 bodies have so far been extracted from the rubble, according to authorities as well as rescuers in rebel areas. Twenty-three million people are “potentially exposed, including around five million vulnerable people”, warned the World Health Organization (WHO).
Read also: To respond to the emergency in Syria, the puzzle of delivering humanitarian aid
In areas where help is slow to arrive, survivors feel quite alone. In Jandairis, in a rebel zone in Syria, “even the buildings that did not collapse were badly damaged”, explains Hassan, one of its inhabitants who wishes to remain anonymous. “There are around 400-500 people trapped under each collapsed building with only 10 people trying to get them out. And there are no machines,” he adds.
In the village of Besnaya, on the border with Turkey, Malik Ibrahim tirelessly clears the rubble, looking for thirty members of his family, all buried under the ruins. Ten dead bodies have already been removed. “Twenty people remain under the rubble. I have no words, it’s a disaster. Our memories are buried with them. We are a disaster-stricken people in every sense of the word,” said the 40-year-old man.
In these circumstances, Turkey and Syria “can count” on the European Union, assured the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who announced that a donors’ conference would take place in March in Brussels. “Put politics aside and let us do our humanitarian work,” pleaded in an interview with AFP the UN coordinator in Syria, El-Mostafa Benlamlih. “We cannot afford to wait and negotiate”.
In the rebel areas, the White Helmets (civil protection volunteers) implored the international community to send aid. “People are dying every second under the rubble,” spokesman Mohammad al-Shebli told AFP.
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