Turkey-Syria earthquake: As it happened
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Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, arrived in Damascus on Wednesday in the first such high-level visit to Syria since Damascus violently cracked down on protests in 2011.
Safadi will also head to Turkey to show “solidarity” after a double earthquake devastated the south of Turkey and northern Syria.
The visit would discuss humanitarian needs and how Jordan, a neighbour that hosts tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, can help in ongoing relief operations, the source said speaking to Reuters.
The latest thaw between Damascus and its neighbours comes as the first Saudi plane in a decade landed in Syria's government-held areas to deliver aid on Tuesday.
"This is the first plane from Saudi Arabia to land on Syrian territory in more than 10 years," an official speaking to AFP said on condition of anonymity. Saudi Arabia broke off relations with President Bashar al-Assad's government in 2012 and backed rebels in earlier stages of the war.
We're now 10 days on from the twin earthquakes that rocked Turkey, the deadliest disaster in its history.
Ragıp Soylu, Middle East Eye's Turkey bureau chief, gives his analysis of where things stand today:
Rescue operations are still underway but the situation is increasingly turning into a simple collection of bodies, with the death toll widely expected to surge in the coming days. Currently, in Turkey it stands at 35,418 people. At least 3,688 more have been confirmed dead next door in Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to leave all that behind by launching several monetary aid packages for earthquake survivors and providing temporary housing for hundreds of thousands people who need urgent help.
People on the ground, however, complain about the absence of proper shelter in place, let alone other forms of aid, in some of the worst-affected cities like Hatay.
There is also another increasing threat. Doctors are warning about the risks of diseases that could emerge from human waste in the disaster zones, as toilets aren’t widely available in tent cities that have been erected and some urban areas.
The country is divided.
Even though Erdogan calls for unity, he continues to quietly criticise the opposition, and blames them for utilising the disaster to their advantage.
Yet, his senior aides are looking through all the legal options to delay the elections scheduled for June, saying that 10 cities wouldn’t be ready for the vote in the next few months.
The government’s image has been tarnished due to insufficient emergency response in the first 48 hours and there are worries in government circles that campaigning would be hindered and unfair if there's not sufficient time to show progress in the disaster zones.
Turkey’s stock market surged on Wednesday as trading resumed following last week’s suspension due to the earthquakes that has left more than 35,000 dead in country.
Turkish banks have allocated $2.7bn from their 2022 income to help the post-earthquake relief effort, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
The Borsa Istanbul 100 Index rose 5.9 percent at the open, partly recouping tens of billions of dollars in losses that followed the 6 February earthquakes.
Some government measures to boost the economy:
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State support underwrites reopening boost for stock market
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Turkey's wealth fund to support equities with new mechanisms
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Temporarily suspend some gold imports
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Plans for tax waiver for share buybacks on the Borsa Istanbul 100 Index
One of the largest construction companies in Turkey is run by the government.
The Turkish Housing Development Administration also known as TOKI has in the last two decades built hundreds of thousands of homes for low income people across Turkey.
Now, the head of TOKI, Omer Bulut, claims that all the 133,759 buildings in the earthquake-hit zones built by the ministry were not damaged. The government is pitching the result as a good news story. MEE hasn't been able to verify the claims.
In an interview with a Turkish opposition newspaper Sozcu, Bulut claimed that the secret to TOKI housing durability was "choosing the right place" to build, utilising correct building techniques, earthquake proofing, not exceeding five floors and strictly complying with earthquake regulations.
Social media users, however, were left wondering why the government also didn't apply the same standards to the private sector?
In Hatay, one of the worst affected areas of the earthquake the Hatay State Hospital, a multi-storey complex built by TOKI and opened in 2016, has been deemed unsafe to work in and largely abandoned. The building is still standing.
Moments before the earthquake struck on Monday last week, Ufuk Bayraktar and his wife Ela were reminiscing about their life together.
Living on the ground floor of the Derya apartment in Hatay, Ufuk and his wife were both awake when the earthquake struck in the early hours of the morning.
Ufuk's last words to his wife were: "I wonder if we should make a coffee."
Moments later, he said, "I could hear her scream."
"After that, I felt the building collapse. I never lost my consciousness, but my sense of time was gone. I thought I was taken out after about sixteen hours, but I was rescued at the 25th hour. I wished to die painlessly when I was under the rubble. I couldn't believe my ears when the call for help came,'' he said.
Buried under the rubble, Ufuk was rescued after 25 hours by search and rescue teams alongside the lifeless body of his wife Ela.
Ufuk was taken into surgery in the Turkish city of Adana, suffering several fractures in his body, and is now in a stable condition.
The leader of the Turkish opposition has rejected the idea of postponing the elections scheduled for June due to the twin earthquakes that hit southern Turkey last week, saying that the constitution only allows such a measure during the state of war.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), told a local news outlet that the constitution must be followed in the election process.
“No one can create a legal norm of his own by inventing justifications other than the constitution and laws. There is a constitution,” he said.
Multiple Turkish sources close to the government told Middle East Eye on Monday that officials from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been exploring ways to delay the elections due to severe infrastructure damage after the earthquakes as well as public anger against the government over its handling of the disaster.
Read more:
Turkey earthquake: The opposition doesn't want to delay the elections
Hello MEE readers. More than a week after two powerful earthquakes hit southern Turkey and Syria, the death toll in Turkey has increased to become the highest in the country's modern history.
Currently, the death toll in Turkey stands at 35,418 people. In Syria, the combined death toll is 3,688 - 1,414 people have died in government-controlled areas while the tally in northwest Syria is 2,274, according to the latest assessment from the Syrian Civil Defence group, also known as the White Helmets.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the country needed stricter enforcement of its laws and regulations for buildings. Last week, the owner of a major apartment complex destroyed in the quakes was arrested at Istanbul airport while he was trying to leave the country.
The United Nations has meanwhile launched a nearly $400m appeal for Syria, and says it is planning a similar one for Turkey.
But that money is nowhere near the amount needed for either country to fully recover. A Turkish report said that the estimated financial damage for the country will be around $84bn.
MEE is going to be pausing its coverage for now, but will pick back up soon. To stay updated with the latest news on the earthquakes, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
The State Department has said that the US government and the private sector have contributed more than $135m to assist Turkey and Syria's ongoing response to devastating earthquakes.
In addition to a previously announced $85m initial contribution from Washington, State Department senior official for Eurasian affairs Erika Olson told reporters during a virtual news conference that the private sector has also donated more than $50m in assistance, which has gone toward air transport, clothes and food.
"That is just, I believe, a snapshot of what's really happening across the country in support for those in Turkey and Syria," she said.
Turkey is gearing up to reopen its stock market on Wednesday with massive cash injections aimed at mitigating losses suffered in the aftermath of last week's deadly earthquakes.
Trading at Borsa Istanbul stock exchange was suspended on 8 February after the benchmark BIST index went into free fall.
Authorities have introduced a few measures before trading is set to resume on Wednesday, hoping to prop up the market.
For more on this, read here.
Turkey props up stock market before reopening
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the enforcement of stricter building regulations was needed after a powerful earthquake rocked southern Turkey last week, killing tens of thousands people.
Erdogan said "collapsed buildings reminded the government of the need for stricter construction rules" in a televised speech, adding that his government would continue work until the last person was rescued from the ruins in the quake-hit area.
The owner of a collapsed apartment complex was detained last week at the Istanbul airport while he was trying to leave the country.
In his speech, Erdogan added that the quakes were "as big as atomic bombs". The death toll currently stands at 35,418 in the country.
He also said that hundreds of thousands of buildings were uninhabitable across southern Turkey, adding "any country would face issues we did during such a disaster".
A report by the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation said that the disaster could cost Ankara up to $84.1bn in reconstruction costs and loss in national income.
The United Nations has launched an appeal of $397.6m to help the earthquake victims in Syria.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the money was needed to respond to the pressing humanitarian needs of the Syrian people over the next three months.
The UN chief added that a similar appeal for Turkey was in the "final stages".
"The human suffering from this epic natural disaster should not be made even worse by manmade obstacles — access, funding, supplies," he said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Tuesday that the death toll from last week's earthquake has risen to at least 35,418 people. He added that the number of injuries has risen to at least 105,505.
The new toll makes it the deadliest quake to hit the country in modern Turkish history.
It has surpassed the total number of people killed in the 1939 earthquake in the Erzincan province of eastern Turkey, which was 32,968, according to the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute at Bogazici University in Turkey.
Erdogan said the quakes were "as big as atomic bombs".
Earthquake becomes deadliest in Turkey’s modern history
The UN confirmed an aid convoy had crossed from Turkey into rebel-held north Syria through the Bab al-Salama crossing after the government opened the border.
The crossing had been closed for UN aid since 2020 after pressure from Syrian ally Russia at the UN Security Council said all relief to rebel-held territories should enter via government-controlled crossings.
Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the United Nations' International Organization for Migration (IOM), told AFP in Geneva that "11 IOM trucks" entered through "the newly opened Bab al-Salama border".
Dillon said the convoy had essential humanitarian assistance, including shelter materials, mattresses, blankets and carpets.
The United Nations said nearly nine million people in Syria were affected by last week's earthquakes as it launched its fundraising appeal.
"Humanitarian agencies will need $397.6 million to respond to the most pressing humanitarian needs over the next three months," the statement added.
