The earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria has already claimed over 46,000 lives, with the toll rising by the day.
The earthquakes damaged nearly 2,64,000 apartments in Turkey, making it difficult for rescuers to find people trapped beneath the rubble. They have, however, fought against all odds to save lives.
Several videos have emerged from the earthquake-ravaged country showing incredible human and animal rescues. A member of the Mardin Fire Department rescued a cat a few days ago, and it now refuses to leave his side.
Anton Gerashchenko, the advisor to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs, shared the news on social media.
On February 16, he took to Twitter and shared a video of the cat with its rescuer. The video shows the cat, named ‘Rubble,’ perched on the rescuer’s shoulder and cuddling up against his face.
He shared another update about the cat on Saturday, saying that the cat had been adopted by the rescuer himself.
“I posted yesterday about a cat saved from the rubble in Turkey who refused to leave his rescuer’s side. The rescuer’s name is Ali Cakas and he adopted the cat, naming him Enkaz – “rubble” in Turkish. May they have a happy life together!” Gerashchenkosaid in the caption.
I posted yesterday about a cat saved from the rubble in Turkey who refused to leave his rescuer’s side.
The rescuer’s name is Ali Cakas and he adopted the cat, naming him Enkaz – “rubble” in Turkish.
The United Nations (UN) has launched an appeal for 1 billion dollars in aid to help the victims of the catastrophic earthquakes that struck Turkey on Monday, February 6, killing thousands of people.
The international organization said in a statement that the money would provide three months of humanitarian relief to 5.2 million people, allowing aid organizations to “rapidly scale up vital support.”
“Turkey is the country that hosts the largest number of refugees in the world, and it has been generous with its Syrian neighbors for years,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Guterres added that the time has come to support the Turkish people, who stand in solidarity with all those in the world who are asking for help.
He continued, “I call on the international community to provide full support for this initiative to confront the largest natural disaster of our time.”
The death toll from the devastating earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria at dawn on February 6 exceeded 41,000 people, with hopes waning to find survivors 10 days after the disaster.
Ankara: Historical sites that were devastated by the recent earthquakes in southern Turkey would be restored, a Minister has confirmed.
“Antakya is a mosaic, it is where religions come together,” Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told reporters outside the Antakya Archaeological Museum, noting “the Ministry will be taking on the responsibility of all registered buildings in the area… We will work together to rebuild them”, reports Xinhua news agency
Ersoy added that the damage to historical sites in Antakya had already been identified and marked so as not to be cleared during the clean-up of the rubble.
“We will begin restoration projects as of March,” he said.
Environment and Urban Planning Minister Murat Kurum said on Friday that “84,726 buildings collapsed, were on the verge of collapse, or have suffered severe structural damage”.
The February 6 earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaras province devastated 10 nearby cities.
The devastated areas comprise some of the oldest continuous settlements of Anatolia, and many historical buildings were lost in the disaster.
The district of Antakya, in the southern province of Hatay, suffered one of the worst hits.
Founded in the 4th century B.C., Antakya has been home to countless civilizations, from Alexander the Great to the Ottoman Empire, and was also one of the earliest centres of Christianity.
It also boasts one of the oldest churches in the world, St. Pierre, a cave church from the year 38 A.D., which fortunately survived the earthquake last week.
However, the Habib-i Najjar Mosque in Antakya was completely destroyed.
Becoming a mosque in 638 A.D. when Muslim Arabs took the city, it is considered the first mosque within the borders of modern Turkey.
Another prominent mosque levelled in the earthquake was the Ulu Mosque, built in the 16th century.
The Saints Peter and Paul Eastern Orthodox Church in central Antakya were also destroyed.
First built as a wooden church in the 1830s, the original structure collapsed in another earthquake in 1872.
A stone church built in Byzantine architecture later replaced it in the early 1900s.
United Nations: Indian peacekeepers deployed in Syria have responded to the plight of earthquake victims in that country by ferrying relief sent by India through devastated areas.
Indian peacekeepers drove a convoy of four vehicles from Camp Faouar in the Golan Heights to Aleppo to deliver the aid on Tuesday, according to Colonel Pratyush Kumar, the chief of staff of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
Another convoy is being planned, he said.
He said that a portion of the relief supplies flown by India on C-17s from Hindon to Damascus was earmarked for Aleppo and was handed over by the Indian Embassy to UNDOF’s Indian contingent.
The relief material that included medicines, medical supplies and equipment were taken by road to UNDOF’s Camp Faouar in Quneitra, Kumar said in response to a query from IANS.
From there they went on the arduous 400 km journey to Aleppo where the relief supplies were handed over to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, he said.
A total of 10 tonnes of assorted relief material were collected by the UNDOF for the relief operations in the Aleppo area following appeals also to international donors, Kumar said.
The February 6 earthquake that cut a deadly swathe across Syria and Turkiye has claimed over 40,000 lives, at least 6,000 in Syria.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made an international appeal on Tuesday for $397 million to help the victims in Syria.
UNDOF’s mandate from the Security Council is to maintain the ceasefire between Israel and Syria and the governments of India and Nepal gave the required permission for their peacekeepers to be deployed outside the mandate area.
India contributes 200 personnel and Nepal 415 to UNDOF, which is headed by Major General Nirmal Kumar Thapa of Nepal.
On receiving a request from the Syrian government for help with earthquake relief, an advance UNDOF team headed by Kumar went to Aleppo on Sunday and met with Governor Ahmed Hussain Diab and other officials to assess the help required there.
Diab told them that the need of the hour for the people of the Aleppo governorate was relief material and UNDOF organised the relief convoys with Indian aid.
In an arson attack in the German city of Recklinhausen, Monday, February 13, 2023, people set fire to clothes worth thousands of dollars donated to earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria, local media reported.
A video clip shared on social media platforms showed the storage where all the donated clothes were stored was stormed by arsonists, burned the clothes collected by the volunteers.
As per a report by Middle East Eye, Vijay Raj, who runs the Ani store where the incident occurred, told Marler Zeitung, that his store had received a lot of clothing and cash donations for the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria.
“Our dreams of donating these clothes and the money were shattered when two boys of European descent entered the store and set it on fire,” Raj explained.
He added, “We also found two Turkish flags that we were hanging, which were thrown into the fire and burned with the donations.”
Raj explained that he no longer accepts donations in tangible form, and asked people to give him money to give to charitable organizations working on the ground.
In Marl (NRW) wurde eine Sammelstelle für Sachspenden für die Erdbebenopfer in der Türkei und Syrien in Brand gesteckt. Der Schaden beläuft sich auf 25.000 Euro. Die Polizei ermittelt. Die Spenden auf dem Gelände des Supermarktes Ani brannten ab.
On Saturday, February 11, the German Interior Ministry said it would offer relatives of current Turkish migrants and Syrian refugees temporary visas to come to Germany from disaster areas.
“This is emergency aid,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the Bild newspaper on Saturday. “We want Turkish or Syrian families in Germany to bring their close relatives from the disaster area to their homes without bureaucracy.”
At dawn on Monday, February 6, double earthquakes, hours apart, struck southern Turkey and northern Syria, the first measuring 7.7 degrees and the second 7.6 degrees, and hundreds of violent aftershocks, which left vast losses of lives and property in both countries.
SRINAGAR: Tremors were felt in Katra early morning on Friday, according to National Centre for Seismology.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.6 on the Richter Scale was recorded at 5.01 am today. The depth of the earthquake was recorded at 10 km.
“Earthquake of Magnitude:3.6, Occurred on 17-02-2023, 05:01:49 IST, Lat: 33.10 & Long: 75.97, Depth: 10 Km, Location: 97km E of Katra, Jammu and Kashmir,” National Centre for Seismology said in a tweet.
Jammu: An earthquake of 3.6 magnitude hit the Katra belt of Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district on Friday, officials said.
There was no casualty or damage to property reported from anywhere, they said.
The quake struck at 5.01 am at a depth of 10 km, the National Centre for Seismology said.
The epicentre was 97 kilometers east of Katra. The latitude and longitude of the earthquake were found to be 33.10 degrees and 75.97 degrees respectively.
The location of quake was 97 kilometers east of Katra.
Bodies continued to be retrieved from rubble across southern Turkey on Thursday as the death toll from the earthquake neared 42,000 and anger mounted among survivors, who said lax building standards were as much to blame as the tremor itself.
A lone survivor, a 17-year-old girl, was pulled from ruins in the nearly destroyed city of Antakya, in a moment of relief for rescuers. But the almost miraculous rescue was dwarfed by an ongoing recovery operation that shows little sign of slowing down.
Such is the scale of destruction in cities such as Antakya, Kahramanmaraş and Adiyaman, that officials fear thousands of victims are yet to be found.
Rescue teams continue to work frantically across vast tracts of urban ruins, with diggers picking gently at heaped piles of rubble until a body is located. Weary rescuers then switch to cutting tools and spades, attempting to pry victims from the indistinguishable remains of their homes and placing them in body bags.
The familiar pattern has shown little signs of slowing in the south-eastern city of Adiyaman, where local people say the death toll far exceeds official figures.
“I don’t feel death any more,” said Yousuf Dogan, watching two bodies being recovered. “It has become natural to me. I’ve lost 70 family members and counting. This will end up being one of the biggest death zones in the country.”
Similar refrains come from across southern Turkey as residents try to salvage what remains of their families and belongings. But their grief is being subsumed by anger over the scale of destruction in some areas, compared with nearby communities that have remained largely unscathed.
Developers who constructed buildings that failed to meet safety standards have borne the brunt of anger. But permissive regulatory environments that facilitated the rapid construction of lower-quality structures are in the sights of survivors, who are calling on Ankara to explain how such homes were allowed to be built.
Survivors pulled from rubble 10 days after earthquakes in Turkey – video
Up to 650 people are believed to have died in one block alone in Antakya – a high-end development that completely collapsed in the quake. Turkey has ordered the arrest of more than 100 developers and builders, but officials who authorised the construction have so far escaped.
Meanwhile, the UN has announced an appeal for $1bn in relief funds for victims in southern Turkey, where, as well as almost 37,000 deaths, up to a million people have been displaced by what the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said was the biggest ever natural disaster on Nato soil.
A separate appeal for almost $400m has been launched for neighbouring Syria, where close to 6,000 people died in the government-held areas of Aleppo and the north-west of the country, which bore the brunt of damage.
Another 1 million Syrian residents of Turkey are believed to have been affected by the disaster, with many having fallen between the cracks of Turkey, which is caring for its citizens, and the UN, which has been roundly criticised for its slow response.
“The Turkish government gave Syrians with temporary protection a permission to go to north-west Syria for three months at least and a maximum of six months, so many Syrians thought they have a better chance of surviving in the next few months at least in Syria,” said Labib al-Nahhas, the head of diplomatic outreach at the Syrian Association for Citizens’ Dignity.
“Syrian refugees return to north-west Syria because they have no other options, and no meaningful aid and assistance is given to them. It’s a forced return.”
Up to 2,300 bodies have been returned to Syria from southern Turkey, while 2,800 Syrian citizens have voluntarily gone back through the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
“Syrians are afraid that the absence of any real effort from the UN to help them rebuild their lives in south Turkey is a prelude to a forced return to regime areas,” Nahhas said.
Up to 120 aid trucks had crossed into Syria as of Thursday. However, local officials say aid needs dwarf the amount of relief being received, with large numbers of people having no shelter or protection against the winter.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said on Thursday that the economic toll of the quake in Turkey could reach $25bn, equating to 2.5% of the country’s GDP.
[ad_2]
#TurkeySyria #earthquake #17yearold #girl #rescued #hunt #bodies #continues
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Ankara: Turkish police announced on Wednesday the arrest of 78 people accused of spreading fear and panic by sharing provocative posts on social media about two devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, February 6.
Turkish police said that 20 of the detainees who were arrested are being held and are awaiting trial.
In the same context, the General Directorate of Security in Turkey stated that it had identified 613 people accused of publishing provocative publications, and that legal procedures had begun against 293 people, and the Public Prosecution ordered the arrest of 78 of them, Reuters reported.
The directorate added that 46 websites were blocked for their involvement in fraudulent schemes to try to steal donations destined for earthquake victims, and 15 accounts on social networking sites were closed for impersonating official institutions.
On February 6, the earthquake struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria with a magnitude of 7.7, followed hours later by another with a magnitude of 7.6 and dozens of aftershocks, which left great losses in lives and property in both countries.
It is worth noting that the death toll from the two devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria has exceeded 41,000, while millions need humanitarian aid.
Turkey earthquake: Girl, 17, rescued from rubble after over 248 hours, Details Here Over 248 hours after massive earthquakes hit Turkey, the authorities have rescued a 17-year-old girl from the rubble of a building that collapsed in the southern central province of Kahramanmaras, reported Reuters citing state broadcaster TRT Haber. Rescuers are continuing to extricate people even 10 days after the earthquake which has caused massive destruction and loss of lives in the country.
According to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), the death toll in Turkey has risen to 36,187, reported Reuters. It added that more than 4,300 aftershocks have hit the disaster zone since the initial tremor.
On February 6, the first major earthquake hit central Turkey and northwest Syria with a 7.8 magnitude on the Richter scale. Turkey saw two more earthquakes of 7.6 and 6.0 magnitudes later in the day. On February 13, another earthquake of magnitude 4.7 struck Turkey’s southern city of Kahramanmaras, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The World Health Organization on Tuesday said that the massive earthquake is the “worst natural disaster” in 100 years in its Europe region. “We are witnessing the worst natural disaster in the WHO European region for a century and we are still learning about its magnitude,” Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, told a press conference.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called the quakes “as big as atomic bombs”. 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”, reported Reuters.
