The cold impedes rescue work

February 8, 2023 3:47 PM

Survivor in rubble sparks hope for more 'miracles.' Death toll passes 11,000 in Turkey and Syria. Syria's White Helmets are urgently asking for international help.
posted by spamandkimchi (21 comments total)

"Northwestern Syria needs humanitarian assistance. Getting it there must be a priority."

More than 4.1 million of the area’s 4.5 million population are dependent on humanitarian aid. Over 2.8 million people were already internally displaced from other parts of Syria — 1.7 million of whom were in some ways spared the worst of the earthquake by living in camps in situations of abject deprivation.

posted by spamandkimchi at 3:49 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

I hitch-hiked around Turkey and Syria in the mid 1980s, and spent a lot of time in Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Antakya, Aleppo - all badly affected by this quake. I met so many incredibly gracious and welcoming people - it's gut wrenching to think of them now, and their children, and grandchildren.
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posted by Rumple at 4:16 PM on February 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

This is the picture that got me. What a tragedy, writ small and large.
posted by chavenet at 4:32 PM on February 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

God. I sometimes let myself think I've become inured to death and disaster and tragedy, but every time I've loaded up the New York Times front page since the quake I've gotten goosebumps. There but for the grace of god go we all.
posted by potrzebie at 4:51 PM on February 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

If you're in Canada the government will match up to $10 million in donations made to the Canadian Red Cross' Earthquake in Türkiye and Syria Appeal.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:57 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

The fault line that shook here stretches from Kurdistan to Kenya. The Jordan River and the Rift Valley exist because of it.

And the construction style you see in the footage, Soviet-influenced, International Style construction, is what you'll see in every city near that fault line. There's somewhere around 90 million people who are looking at the footage and know that they might be next. They will be next.
posted by ocschwar at 5:08 PM on February 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

I know it's a small thing in the face of such enormous tragedy, but I was heartened by seeing Mexico's famous canine rescue teams heading to Turkey. I'm not normally a praying person, but I am definitely sending up some prayers for their success.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 6:06 PM on February 8, 2023 [11 favorites]

There are no words.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 6:39 PM on February 8, 2023

90 million people who are looking at the footage and know that they might be next.

It depends on how much corruption is involved. Most of the collapsed buildings are on the newer side; even the ancient fort that collapsed, the part that collapsed was a "restored" section. The corruption in the construction industry in Turkey is apparently terrible, with AKP and Erdogan taking the payoffs.
posted by tavella at 7:08 PM on February 8, 2023 [6 favorites]

Nobody in that region can honestly say that they'll sleep better at night knowing their building inspectors are more forthright than Turkey's.

Every country in that region inherited the same systemic political and economic problems from the Ottoman Empire's failing attempt to modernize. It's a shame, because the Ottomans really made a good effort in 1830 to 1850 to do the right thing for everyone (they abolished slavery before the United States). But it was too little, too late.
posted by ocschwar at 7:39 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Here’s how to help victims of the earthquake. NYT
How to help victims of the 7.8 earthquake in Turkey and Syria PBS
How to help victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria CNN
They need cash. Recovery is expensive and difficult.
posted by theora55 at 7:05 AM on February 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

Every country in that region inherited the same systemic political and economic problems from the Ottoman Empire's failing attempt to modernize.

Mexico and Chile are both poorer per capita than Turkey, they both have had enormous problems with corruption, dictatorship, et al. They get rocked on a regular basis by earthquakes on the same scale or bigger, and they have very few deaths in recent decades, with the one death toll that went to three digits being mostly from tsunami, not collapsing buildings. Building earthquake-resistant buildings is to a great extent a solved problem and not even that expensive a one. There are different scales of corruption, and it's clear that Turkey is extreme.
posted by tavella at 12:05 PM on February 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

Yes. Because for two centuries the Ottomans were the epitome of despotism, and a visit from an Ottoman official was always a reason to be terrified. Then in 1834 they set out to correct the problem and build a modern bureaucracy. They fully intended to do all the right things and set a uniform code of law for the empire. The problem is, to have a modern functioning state, you have to have people who will do their part. The empire's subjects expected nothing but the worst from the empire, and anyone who tried to live like a proper citizen, pay his taxes properly, not collect or give bribes, do a proper job as a building inspector et cetera, was viewed as a sucker.

It's not just Turkey. Every post-Ottoman state has this problem.
posted by ocschwar at 2:55 PM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

United Nations Resident Coordinator for Syria.

Mr. Benlamlih warned that the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance – currently 15.3 million – will have to be revised upwards.

Speaking from Damascus via video link, Mr. Benlamlih told journalists in New York that 10.9 million people in Syria had been affected by the catastrophe in the northwestern governorates of Hama, Latakia, Idlib, Aleppo and Tartus.

Some 100,000 people are now believed to be homeless in Aleppo alone, the humanitarian official continued, as he described how just 30,000 of that number had found shelter in schools and mosques.

“Those are the lucky ones,” he said, before stressing that the remaining 70,000 “have snow, they have cold and they are living in a terrible situation”

posted by spamandkimchi at 7:20 PM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

The first UN aid convoy has reached northwest Syria. Overview of how the Assad regime is seeking to leverage the earthquake aid efforts in international relations. U.S. just announced a 6 month sanctions exemption for financial transactions to Syria.

From NYTimes. The international delay on getting equipment to Syria has cost lives.
"He pleaded, through tears, for the United Nations to send rescue teams and spare parts for equipment ...“What will children under the rubble do with diapers?”
posted by spamandkimchi at 7:28 PM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

NPR interview: One of the hardest-hit areas is the province of Hatay in southern Turkey. Gonul Tol is there. She is normally based in Washington, where she is the director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute. On what kind of response she is seeing:

TOL: Well, nothing. I was - Turkey was hit by another very powerful earthquake in 1999. And I was there at the time. I was a student in college, and that was in northwestern Turkey. It was equally devastating. And at the time, newspapers that are now pro-government criticized the state agencies' slow response - it's - their inefficiency in delivering aid and not being responsive to the needs of people. And the ruling AKP came to power after that tragedy in 2002. And President Erdogan's AKP came to power basically promising a more efficient governance, a government that was in tune with the demands and needs of the people. And he also legitimized switching the country's parliamentary system to an all-powerful presidential system without any checks and balances by saying this would make responding to crises and solving country's problems faster. Unfortunately, that was not what I saw in Hatay yesterday.

CHANG: Well, speaking of President Erdogan, he has declared a three-month state of emergency in the country. What do you make of that declaration, given the amount, the extent of damage that you are personally seeing right now?

TOL: Well, I don't think that response is going to solve the problems. He's under a lot of criticism right now, because from what I saw in Hatay, there were no government agencies. There were no civil society organizations, no rescue workers on the ground. Basically, people were trying to dig out loved ones trapped under the rubble with bare hands. And I think that's the most striking picture of Erdogan's new Turkey, where institutions are not there anymore. He destroyed institutions, and he did not put anything in their place.

posted by spamandkimchi at 7:31 PM on February 9, 2023 [8 favorites]

Thanks for posting those links, spamandkimchi, which are germane to the topic.

Just surpassed 20k dead. Surely the focus should be on what one can do, and not speculative, historical posturing.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 7:33 PM on February 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

-After surviving Syrian war, earthquake kills most of a father's family
-We fled war to die in an earthquake, says Iraqi woman mourning family in Turkey
posted by kliuless at 10:19 PM on February 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

Fund to help affected Turkish university students.
posted by gudrun at 6:53 AM on February 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

The city that didn't collapse. "No deaths, no buildings collapsed in one town near #Turkeyquake epicenter, officials told me. One said that current & previous mayors didn't allow for illegal construction."
posted by spamandkimchi at 6:51 PM on February 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

Actual link to the story. (Your link just went to a tweet with a screenshot of the top part of the story!)
posted by eviemath at 3:44 AM on February 16, 2023 [2 favorites]