{"id":36300,"date":"2023-02-22T14:11:15","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T20:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=36300"},"modified":"2023-02-22T14:11:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T20:11:15","slug":"syria-turkiye-hit-by-strongest-earthquakes-in-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2023\/02\/22\/syria-turkiye-hit-by-strongest-earthquakes-in-20-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria, T\u00fcrkiye Hit by Strongest Earthquakes in 20+ Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

On February 6th, two major earthquakes struck Syria and T\u00fcrkiye. Since then, the countries have been hit by more than 600 aftershocks<\/a>. As of February 13th, the quakes have killed more than 40,000 people<\/a>, and wounded countless others. They struck an area home to an estimated 13.5 million people<\/a>, many of whose homes have been destroyed. A huge number of buildings have collapsed. T\u00fcrkiye has declared a three-month-long state of emergency<\/a>, and both countries have received humanitarian aid, though it has been especially difficult for help to reach Syria.<\/p>\n

The WHO has called the situation a \u201ccrisis on top of multiple crises<\/a>.\u201d In addition to the challenges of getting aid into the country, Syria has been fighting<\/a> a civil war for nearly 12 years. The opposition-held area affected by the earthquake suffered an outbreak of cholera following the COVID-19 pandemic, straining the region\u2019s wartorn healthcare infrastructure. Additionally, many people in the area live under impoverished conditions in makeshift structures that are unable to protect them from the region\u2019s cold temperatures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Region\u2019s Strongest Earthquakes in 20+ Years<\/b><\/p>\n

The February 6th earthquakes were the strongest the region has seen since 1999<\/a>. Striking at  4:17 am with an epicenter in T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s Kahramanmaras province, the first was designated a magnitude 7.8. The second, a magnitude 7.6, followed less than 12 hours later. A magnitude 7 earthquake is considered major.<\/p>\n

The hundreds of aftershocks that followed have been magnitude 4 or below\u2014comparably minor, but still felt by people in the region and able to cause some damage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Humanitarian Response <\/b><\/p>\n

While rescue missions and aid delivery are underway<\/a> in both Syria and T\u00fcrkiye, responses in devastated areas have been hindered by cold weather, poorly equipped and damaged hospitals, and a lack of machinery capable of digging through the rubble. In many cases, people have resorted to using their hands. Damage to roads has prevented people and aid from being transported to the area, and many of the region\u2019s roughly 4 million internally displaced<\/a> people are without food, shelter, and access to basic services.<\/p>\n

Countries including the US, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, and Saudi Arabia and organizations like the UN and the Norwegian Refugee Council have provided<\/a> aid items, in-person support, and funds to Syria and T\u00fcrkiye, while others have assisted only T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Difficulties Delivering Aid to Syria <\/b><\/p>\n

Opposition-Held Territory <\/i><\/p>\n

While international aid has been able to enter T\u00fcrkiye with relatively little difficulty, Syria\u2019s political situation has hampered<\/a> the flow of aid into the country. Civil war has been ongoing in Syria since 2011, and much of the country’s northwestern region\u2014the part most devasted by the quakes\u2014is under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a terrorist group opposed to the Assad regime.<\/p>\n

For years, aid has entered Syria\u2019s northwestern Idlib province from neighboring T\u00fcrkiye. There is a single border crossing in the province, Bab al-Hawa, that the UN is authorized<\/a> to use to access rebel-controlled territory. However, the crossing was damaged during the earthquakes, delaying the delivery of items like blankets and hygiene kits. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham\u2019s presence in the region also \u201climits the kinds of aid many donors are prepared to supply to the area,\u201d according<\/a> to Middle East Institute non-resident fellow Emma Beals.<\/p>\n

Routing aid through the Syrian government in Damascus was considered as an alternative to direct delivery but was foregone because of sanctions against the country. Russia, which supports Assad, has pushed for aid to be channeled through Damascus, but foreign governments have not been willing to negotiate<\/a> their current terms with Assad.<\/p>\n

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price told<\/a> reporters that it would be \u201cironic, if not even counterproductive, for us to reach out to a government that has brutalized its people over the course of a dozen years now.\u201d He said the US would continue to direct aid to Syrians in need through \u201chumanitarian partners on the ground\u201d rather than Damascus.<\/p>\n

On February 9th, three days after the first quakes struck, a UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs convoy crossed<\/a> Bab al-Hawa into Syria. According to CNN, the six trucks delivered shelter items and non-food item kits. The UN says that future deliveries will include medical supplies and food items.<\/p>\n

More recently, however, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths acknowledged<\/a> via tweet that the UN has \u201cso far failed the people in northwest Syria. They feel rightfully abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn\u2019t arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n

When aid arrived days after the quakes first struck the region, the twenty trucks carried \u201cscheduled aid,\u201d according<\/a> to Raed al-Saleh, leader of the Syrian White Helmets volunteer organization. The aid included things like flour, sugar, and cooking oil, which are routinely delivered to Syria\u2019s refugee camps. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t aid for the families and people in the towns and cities which were in the disaster of the quake.\u201d al-Saleh said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The BBC reports<\/a> that as of February 14th, 58 aid lorries had entered opposition-held Syria via Bab al-Hawa.<\/p>\n

Though the possibility was initially rejected by Russia, the UN has announced<\/a> that two additional border crossings, Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai, will be opening for three months.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Government-Held Territory<\/i><\/p>\n

It has also been difficult for international aid to enter affected areas controlled by the Syrian government. As with the aid intended for opposition-held areas, the Russian and Syrian governments have pressured NGOs and governments to deliver aid to Damascus, to be redistributed by the Assad regime. Aid-providing entities, however, have denied the regime\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

A State Department spokesperson told<\/a> AP, \u201cOur partners in regime-controlled areas directly deliver assistance to beneficiaries without control or direction from the Assad regime. This is to ensure that our assistance is not diverted by malign actos or the Assad regime and reaches the intended beneficiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Assad regime has a record of \u201cserious violations of international humanitarian law,\u201d according<\/a> to Amnesty International. Over the course of the Syrian civil war, the government has \u201ccarried out direct attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure\u2026and indiscriminate attacks through arerial bombing and artillery shelling in Idlib governate and western Aleppo countryside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Activists like Omar Alshogre, Director for Detainee Affairs at the Syrian Emergency Task Force, agree<\/a> that the \u201cregime doesn\u2019t qualify to put its hands on aid,\u201d and say, \u201cthe sanctions imposed on the Syrian regime do not affect the enry of humanitarian aid to the Syrian people.\u201d Rather, \u201cthe Syrian regime is trying to lift the sanctions so that it can finance the killing machine that has claimed the lives of a million Syrians, displaced half of the people, and is still torturing more than 100,000 detainees.\u201d<\/p>\n

AP also writes<\/a> that \u201cin theory, aid operations in government areas should not be blocked by sanctions, since both the US and the EU have exemptions for humanitarian aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, in both government- and opposition-held Syria, local emergency workers have reported a delay in aid delivery. \u201cThere are promises that aid will get to us but nothing has gotten here yet,\u201d al-Saleh told<\/a> AP on February 7th.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Aid to T\u00fcrkiye<\/b><\/p>\n

Since the Turkish parliament voted<\/a> to declare a three-month state of emergency in the southern provinces that were hit by the quakes, countries and NGOs have begun to deliver aid to T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n

The World Bank has announced<\/a> that it will provide T\u00fcrkiye with $1.78 billion in aid. $780 million of this will be offered immediately by the Contingent Emergency Response Components of two existing World Bank projects in the country.<\/p>\n

The US State Department has also promised on-the-ground support and funds to both T\u00fcrkiye and Syria. In a February 9th press statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced<\/a> $85 million in \u201curgent humanitarian assistance\u201d to the countries and said that the United States Agency for International Development\u2019s Disaster Assistance and Response Team was \u201calready hard at work in southern T\u00fcrkiye.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anger over Turkish Government\u2019s Response<\/b><\/p>\n

The Turkish government has been criticized for \u201cwhat many see as its lack of preparation and sluggish response to the tragedy,\u201d according<\/a> to NPR. Erdogan himself has said that \u201cthe first day we had some discomforts,\u201d though he argues that the \u201csecond day, and then today, the situation got under control.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a 1999 earthquake in northwestern Turkey killed more than 18,000 people, the Turkish government imposed<\/a> an earthquake tax intended to be put toward disaster prevention and relief. However, critics like opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu say the collected money is not really invested in earthquake management. \u201cThey grease their cronies\u2019 palms with earthquake taxes,\u201d Kilicdaroglu said. \u201cWhere is that money? It\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erdogan\u2019s centralization of the Turkish government has also restricted cities\u2019 and aid organizations\u2019 operations, making it difficult for them to launch rescue efforts.<\/p>\n

With Erdogan already weakened by T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s recent inflation, experts say the president\u2019s response to the quakes has put him in an even worse position for the upcoming elections in June. \u201cI would expect the government to actually be one of the victims under the rubble of this earthquake,\u201d Soli Ozel, lecturer at Kadir Has University, told<\/a> NPR.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Building Collapse in Turkey<\/b><\/p>\n

As rescuers pull the last survivors out of the rubble, Turkish authorities have begun to address the collapse of buildings in the affected area. Many of these buildings were recently constructed apartments, which should have been able to withstand the earthquakes<\/a> had they adhered to construction regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe maximum intensity for this earthquake was violent but not necessarily enough to bring well-constructed buildings down,\u201d said<\/a> Dr. David Alexander, a professor of risk and disaster reduction at University College London. \u201cIn most places, the level of shaking was less than the maximum, so we can conclude out of the thousands of buildings that collapsed, almost all of them don\u2019t stand up to any reasonably expected earthquake construction code.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BBC writes<\/a> that Turkish governments have provided builders \u201cconstruction amnesties,\u201d or legal exemptions from the building code, for a fee. According to the head of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects\u2019 Chamber of City Planners Pelin Pinar Giritlio\u011flu, up to 75,000 buildings in the affected area of T\u00fcrkiye were given amnesties. The most recent were constructed in 2018.<\/p>\n

Days before the earthquakes struck, Turkish news outlet Sabah reported<\/a> that a draft law that would grant amnesty to 2023 constructions is pending parliament\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n

More recently, Turkish officials have said<\/a> that they have issued 113 arrest warrants related to the construction of the buildings that crumbled during the quakes. They have taken at least 12 people into custody.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rescue Missions \u201cComing to a Close\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths has said<\/a> that the rescue phase of response to the quakes is \u201ccoming to a close.\u201d As the response moves forward, focus will shift to shelter, food, and education for those affected.<\/p>\n

Though they are few, some people continue to be rescued<\/a> from the rubble despite having been trapped for more than a week.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the WHO has warned<\/a> that a health crisis will follow the quakes. Many are without shelter as temperatures drop below zero. Some have no access to food, clean water, or hygiene products, increasing their risk of infectious disease. Wounds sustained during the buildings\u2019 collapse also pose a threat. All of these issues will be made worse by the fact that much of the region\u2019s healthcare infrastructure was destroyed.<\/p>\n

According to Mervat Alhaffar, a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, some of the earthquake survivors will also develop psychological conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder. Alhaffar points out that many of those affected \u201cwill already have experienced multiple displacements in recent years, on top of losing friends, family members, and their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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