Turkey/Syria Earthquake Toll Tops 33,000

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As Turkish authorities tried to keep order in the disaster zone, they began legal action for building collapses. Rescuers pulled even more survivors from the rubble Sunday. This was almost a week after the worst earthquake to strike Turkey or Syria.

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With chances of finding more survivors growing more remote, the toll in both countries from Monday’s earthquake and major aftershocks rose above 33,000 and looked set to keep growing. This was the deadliest earthquake in Turkey since 1939.

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Near the epicenter, displaced residents of Kahramanmaras in Turkey said that they had set up tents in order to protect their homes from being looted.

As he prepares for the most difficult election in his 20-year tenure, President Tayyip Erdoan answered questions about his response. He promised to begin rebuilding as soon as possible.

The worst disaster in Syria occurred in the rebel-held northwest. This region was home to many people who were already homeless after a decade of civil war. This region has received very little assistance compared to the government-held areas.

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“We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria,” Martin Griffiths, United Nations aid chief, tweeted from Turkey-Syria’s border. Only one crossing is available for U.N. supplies.

“They rightly feel abandoned,” Griffiths added that he was determined to address that quickly.

Six days later, emergency personnel still found some survivors in the rubble of homes that had been abandoned by thousands of families.

A team of Chinese rescuers saved the life of 54-year-old Syrian Malik Milandi in Antakya in south Turkey. He had survived for 156 hours under the rubble.

The few buildings that survived on the main road to the city, which was one of the most severely damaged in Turkey, had large cracks and caved-in facades. Sometimes traffic was slowed down as rescuers pleaded for silence in order to find signs of life beneath the rubble.

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A father and his daughter, a toddler, and a 10-year old girl were some of the survivors who were pulled from the rubble of fallen buildings on Sunday. However, such scenes are becoming increasingly rare as the death toll continues to climb.

At a funeral near Reyhanli, veiled women wailed and beat their chests as bodies were unloaded from lorries – some in closed wood coffins, others in uncovered coffins, and still others just wrapped in blankets.

Kahramanmaras residents claimed that he hadn’t yet buried his family members because there weren’t enough funeral shrouds to wrap them in. A big truck was filled to the brim of wooden coffins as it drove into the town.

SECURITY FEARS AND DETENTION ORDERERS

In the wake of the earthquake, the focus has been on building quality in a country which lies on multiple seismic fault lines.

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Fuat Oktay, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay stated that some of the thousands flattened buildings in the 10 affected regions were caused by 131 suspects.

“We will follow this up meticulously until the necessary judicial process is concluded, especially for buildings that suffered heavy damage and buildings that caused deaths and injuries,” He stated.

Erdogan was scheduled to face presidential and parliamentary election in June after the earthquake. His popularity was already falling before the earthquake, due to high inflation and a weakening Turkish currency.

Opposition politicians and those affected by the earthquake have accused the government early on of insufficient and slow relief efforts. Critics have also questioned why the army which was a crucial role after the 1999 earthquake, wasn’t brought in sooner.

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Erdogan acknowledged that there were problems such as the delivery of aid to the affected areas despite poor transport links but stated that they had managed to control the situation. He called for solidarity and condemned “negative” politicking.

He warned that looters would be harshly punished. Police led an eight-man army convoy to assist the aid vans headed towards Kahramanmaras.

Kahramanmaras’ elderly resident claimed that his gold jewelry had been taken from his home. Police were also deployed in Iskenderun at intersections of commercial streets and many jewelry and phone shops.

SYRIA AID COMPLICATED DURING YEARS OF WAR

The hostilities in Syria that caused a fractured country after 12 years of civil conflict are now preventing relief efforts.

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A U.N spokesperson stated that earthquake aid from government-held areas to territory controlled by hardline opposition parties has been hampered by approval issues with the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which controls large swathes of the region.

A source from HTS in Idlib said to Reuters that the group wouldn’t allow any shipments from government-held regions and that aid would be coming from Turkey to the North.

“Turkey has opened all the roads and we won’t allow the regime to take advantage of the situation to show they are helping,” The source stated.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson at the U.N. said that they are hoping to increase cross-border operations and open two more border points between Turkey & opposition-held Syria in order to facilitate aid deliveries.

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On Sunday, Bashar al Assad, President of the United Arab Emirates and foreign minister to the United States met him in his first high-ranking Arab visit since the earthquake.

Several Arab countries have provided support to Assad in the quake’s aftermath. The U.N. Relief efforts in Syria were heavily funded by the West, but they have not provided direct assistance to Damascus.

Damascus also received the first shipment of European earthquake assistance to government-held areas of Syria on Sunday.

U.N. relief chief Griffiths is scheduled to travel to Aleppo, northern Syria, on Monday to assess the damage and launch an appeal to the United Nations for Syria. He hopes that the appeal will be able to cover both government-controlled and non-government areas of control.

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Geir Persen, U.N Syria representative, said in Damascus: “The United Nations is mobilizing funding to help Syria.” “We’re trying to tell everyone: Put politics aside, this is a time to unite behind a common effort to support the Syrian people,” He stated.

The quake ranks as the world’s sixth deadliest natural disaster this century, its death toll exceeding the 31,000 from a quake in neighboring Iran in 2003.

It has already killed 29605 people in Turkey, more than 3500 in Syria and over 3,500 in Syria. Tolls are not updated for at least two days.

Turkey reported that around 80,000 people were admitted to hospital and that more than 1,000,000 people are in temporary shelters.

(Reporting done by Ali Kucukgocmen of Antakya and Henriettechacar in Elbistan. Additional reporting provided by Umit Betas in Antakya. Daren Butler in Istanbul. Yesim Dikmen and Daren Butler in Istanbul. Timour Azhari and Timour Azhari, Timour Azhari, Timour Azhari, Jan Harvey, Frances Kerry.