Tag: Turkey

US urges Turkey to ‘quickly’ ratify Sweden’s NATO membership

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Washington: After Turkey approved the process of ratifying Finland’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the US welcomed the decision of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and said that America encourage Ankara to “quickly ratify Sweden’s accession protocols as well.”
In the statement, released by the White House, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said, “The United States welcomes President Erdogan’s announcement that he will send Finland’s NATO accession protocols to the Turkish Parliament and looks forward to the prompt conclusion of that process.”
“We encourage Turkey to quickly ratify Sweden’s accession protocols as well. In addition, we urge Hungary to conclude its ratification process for both Finland and Sweden without delay,” he added.
In the statement, Sullivan further stated that Sweden and Finland, both countries are strong, capable partners that share NATO’s values and will strengthen the Alliance and contribute to European security.
“The United States believes that both countries should become members of NATO as soon as possible,” the statement read.
Earlier, Turkey approved the process of ratifying Finland’s accession to NATO.
According to the Anadolu Agency, President Erdogan at a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto in Ankara noted that Finland had addressed all of Turkey’s security concerns.
In the press conference, Erdogan said, “We have decided to launch the approval process of Finland’s NATO membership protocol in our Parliament.”

Citing negotiations on Sweden and Finland’s accession bids at the NATO Madrid summit in June 2022, Erdogan said that Turkiye is among the strong defenders of NATO’s open-door policy.
The President further stated that Turkey has seen that Finland had taken concrete steps to fulfil its commitments in the tripartite memorandum which was signed at the Madrid summit in June, last year, according to Anadolu Agency.
“NATO will become stronger with Finland’s membership, and I believe it will play an active role in maintaining global security and stability,” Erdogan added.
He further emphasized that Turkey-Finland relations will be strengthened on the basis of the NATO alliance following the completion of the approval process.
On Sweden’s process, Erdogan said that Turkey will continue its talk on the basis of the principles of the alliance and our approach to the fight against terrorism.
“I believe that our country’s principles and goodwill in advancing the (NATO accession) process is now more clearly seen,” he added.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 18, 2023
Turkey estimates earthquakes loss over USD 105 billion

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Ankara: An official report has estimated that the twin earthquakes that hit southern Turkey on February 6 cost approximately 2 trillion Turkish liras (about $105.2 billion) for the country.
The report, announced by Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Ministry and prepared by the presidency’s department of strategy and budget, predicted that the financial burden caused by the tragic tremors could reach approximately 9 percent of the national income in 2023, Xinhua news agency reported.
The study noted that the support expenditures made to the earthquake area cost a total of 351 billion liras (about $18.5 billion) in national income.
Housing damage took the lion’s share in the earthquake’s total burden on the Turkish economy with 54.9 percent, and the monetary value was calculated as 1.07 trillion liras (about $56.4 billion).
The second largest cause of damage loss was the destruction of public infrastructure and service buildings, with estimated 242.5 billion liras (about $12.7 billion).
Private sector damage, excluding housing, was calculated as 222.4 billion liras (about $11.7 billion). This item included damage to manufacturing, energy, communication, tourism, health and education sectors.
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkey’s southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 a.m. local time (0117 GMT) on February 6, followed by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake at 1:24 p.m. local time (1024 GMT) in the Kahramanmaras Province.
The death toll of the quakes which affected 11 provinces of Turkey exceeded 48,000 while leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 18, 2023
Ukraine cheers rollover of grain deal, but Russia objects again

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A deal allowing Ukrainian grain exports to pass through the blockaded Black Sea has been extended for 120 days, Ukraine announced Saturday, but Russia again griped that it would only assent to a full rollover if its own exports of food and fertilizer are freed up.
Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov thanked “all our partners for sticking to the agreements” in a tweet Saturday afternoon. “Due our joint efforts, 25M tons of Ukrainian grain” have been “delivered to world markets,” he said.
The announcement comes after a week of wrangling after Russia said Monday that it had agreed to extend the Black Sea grain initiative but only for 60 days. Moscow again dug its heels in on Saturday, however, despite objections from Kyiv and reminders from the United Nations and Turkey that the original agreement foresees a minimum 120-day extension.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, visited Crimea on Saturday on an unannounced trip to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine. Putin was greeted by the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, and taken to see a new children’s center, Reuters reported.
The grain deal — described by aid groups as a lifeline for food insecure countries — was due to expire on Saturday.
Initially brokered by the U.N. and Turkey last July after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 fueled a global food crisis, the pact was extended in November for 120 days.
Russia will only consider further extending the deal if “tangible progress” is achieved in implementing its three-year deal with the U.N. to facilitate its own exports of food and fertilizer, according to a letter posted on Twitter Saturday by its mission to the U.N. in New York.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is due to attend an EU summit in Brussels next week to seek ways to unblock the Russian food and fertilizer shipments, which have been blocked by sanctions targeting Russian oligarchs and the state agricultural bank. The Kremlin argues that these these are to blame for food insecurity in the Global South.

Ukraine and Russia produce a massive chunk of the world’s grain and fertilizer, together supplying some 28 percent of globally traded wheat and 75 percent of sunflower oil during peacetime.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has called on the U.N. to broker a renewal of the deal for a full 12 months, warning that this is necessary to “to help stave off hunger in the most food insecure countries.”
The number of people facing food insecurity rose from 282 million at the end of 2021 to a record 345 million last year, according to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). Africa is one of the hardest-hit regions, with eastern African countries like Somalia and Ethiopia in particular facing extreme hunger.
“Shipments of grain to countries most in need, including Somalia, hinge on the critical renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” the IRC said, adding that Somalia receives over 90 percent of its grain from Ukraine.
This story has been updated.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 15, 2023
Turkey earthquakes put spotlight on building code violations

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New Delhi: Over a month after three devastating earthquakes struck Turkey, experts are trying to piece together information on the compliance level of buildings in the geologically fragile region.
A recent report outlining preliminary findings of damage assessment of the earthquakes shows violations of the building code stipulations in the past two decades contributed to a large number of lives lost and extensive damage to infrastructure.
Over 48,000 people have died so far in the February 6 quakes and nearly 1.2 lakh people have been injured.
The report by a team of scientists from Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, and colleagues also observed that in Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, and Adiyaman provinces, the buildings were subjected to seismic shocks larger than what the Turkish Earthquake Code (2018) design levels provided for.
The experts noted that regardless of the unprecedented nature of the earthquakes, buildings should have endured and not suffered collapses the way they did.
The ‘Preliminary Reconnaissance Report’ by the international team said that buildings designed and constructed post 2002 could be presumed to perform better during the quakes than the older buildings.
However, the report shows that more than 1,000 buildings constructed after 2000 were heavily damaged or collapsed, violating the performance objective given in the code which assesses the seismic risk of a building with respect to its geographical location.
This, the report said, appeared to be an important observation demanding further investigations on the design and construction quality of those buildings.

“Inadequacies could also develop due to the presence of “soft stories,” which are entrances or basements not having continuity of its walls with those of the upper storeys,” explained Bora Sezer, a structural earthquake engineer based in Istanbul, Turkey.
“The structures were poorly built. Normally, checks should be done during the construction of the structures,” added Seda Torisu, a Turkish-origin geotechnical engineer, currently working in Japan.
“If there was no problem with the design of the structure, then problems happened during the application [or construction] of the design on site,” Torisu, a survivor of the 1999 Izmit earthquake, told PTI in an email.
The team assessed the performance of all kinds of infrastructure such as residential structures, bridges, tunnels, coastal structures and historic structures.
They found that inadequate foundations, as a matter of fact, were also the reason for “pancake” collapses of multiple buildings.
Pancake collapse refers to a type of structural collapse which occurs from the top down as upper floors settle into lower floors of a building.
Similar findings were outlined in the report as well, which divided the building damage inventory in the region into two, based on their construction periods — before and after 2002.
This is because “a significant change is believed to have occurred in Turkiye between 1998 and 2001,” the report said.
A modern earthquake code was put into effect on September 2, 1998. Two destructive quakes occurred on August 17, and November 12, 1999, in Kocaeli and Duzce, raising awareness for seismic resistance.
A modern reinforced concrete design guideline (TS-500) came into force on October 12, 2000, making use of ready mix concrete and ductile low carbon content steel as reinforcement. A Building Inspection Law was enacted on July 13, 2001.
“When we compare the pre-1998 earthquake regulation with today’s regulations and construction methods, there are serious changes made in terms of regulation acceptances, material quality and application details in construction methods,” explained Sezer, who is working with professors who revised The Turkiye Earthquake Code 2007 and 2018.
“For these reasons, we expect more damage to structures built before 2000,” Sezer told PTI in an email.
Examples of “serious changes” which were strictly unacceptable in the revised regulations includes reinforcement bars used for construction not being ribbed, insufficient stirrup tightening — provided to laterally confine steel reinforcement — insufficient concrete quality, and low quality of materials used.
“Damage to old structures has been enormous. However, we have also seen in these earthquakes that many new buildings built after 2000, which were not well engineered or not well-inspected or whose soil-structure relationship remained unestablished, were damaged or demolished beyond expectations,” said Sezer.
A strong example which demonstrates this point is that of Erzin in Turkey’s Hatay province, where there were no structural collapses or casualties.
“The local government did not allow the construction of structures in Erzin, which had not been well-engineered or whose ground-structure interaction was not resolved,” Sezer said.
“They also carried out strict controls on the construction processes of all buildings. In addition, the buildings in Erzin are low-rise and designed and built in accordance with the earthquake code and regulations,” he added.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 14, 2023
UAE sends telecommunication equipment worth Rs 44 cr to quake-hit Turkey

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Abu Dhabi: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced on Friday the dispatch of digital equipment worth 20 million Dirhams (Rs 44,63,50,200) to support the operating stations of the damaged telephone networks in the earthquake areas in Turkey, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
Etisalat by e& technology and investment group had sent communications equipment as a humanitarian initiative to the telecommunications sector in Turkey to contribute to rebuilding the sector’s infrastructure in the earthquake-affected areas.
The move comes as an extension of the UAE campaigns aimed at supporting relief efforts in the earthquake areas in Turkey and Syria.
The equipment includes— more than 4,000 radio and digital units to restart the affected mobile network stations, which supports the infrastructure of the telecommunications sector in Turkey and helps restore services affected by this crisis.
Etisalat group announced, in February 2023, that it provided free calls from its network in the Emirates to both Syria and Turkey as part of its humanitarian response in the face of the effects of the earthquake disaster.
On Thursday, March 9, the UAE Ministry of Defense announced that it had flown 209 cargo planes, carrying 5,848 tons of relief aid, as part of “Operation Gallant Knight 2”, and provided treatment to about 4,000 cases in its field hospital in Gaziantep, southern Turkey.
On February 6, a double earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria, the first measuring 7.7 degrees and the second 7.6 degrees, followed by thousands of violent aftershocks, killing tens of thousands, mostly in southern Turkey, in addition to massive destruction.
Since the earthquake occurred, Arab countries and peoples, especially the Arab Gulf states, rushed to provide support and relief to those affected.

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 12, 2023
5 killed as migrant boat sinks off Turkey

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Ankara: At least five migrants were killed when a dinghy sank off the coast of southwest Turkey, state media reported.
Turkish coastguard arrived off the coast of Didim district in Aydin province after learning that a boat was taking in water at 6:20 a.m. (0320 GMT), the daily Hurriyet reported on Saturday.
The coastguards rescued 11 people, including a child, the daily reported, adding that search and rescue efforts continue in the area for the missing migrants, Xinhua news agency reported.
The preliminary findings revealed that the migrants, who are African nationals, were brought to Didim by human traffickers before sailing to the Greek islands illegally, the Hurriyet reported.
The Aegean Sea has been an important route for migrants trying to reach Europe through Turkey. A deal was signed between Turkey and the European Union in March 2016 to curb the flow of illegal immigration.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 12, 2023
UN continue to deliver quake-related aid to Syria, Turkey

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United Nations: The UN and its specialised agencies have continued delivering aid to Turkey and Syria following the devastating February 6 quakes that killed more than 53,300 people in the two countries, a spokesman said.
In Syria, at least 8.8 million people were affected by the earthquakes, which, among other factors, also have a significant impact on the response to a cholera outbreak, said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“Our partners launched a cholera vaccination campaign in earthquake-hit areas of Northwest Syria on Tuesday,” Xinhua news agency quoted Haq as saying.
“They plan to distribute 1.7 million vaccine doses in high-risk areas. More than 53,000 suspected cholera cases and 23 associated deaths have been reported in Northwest Syria as of March 5.”
More than 100,000 people who had their water infrastructure damaged received water since the start of the response, he said.
Humanitarian workers have also provided hygiene kits to more than 100,000 people in reception centres.
“Our colleagues also tell us that 3.7 million children in earthquake-affected areas across Syria are facing the risk of contracting diseases and lack access to basic services,” Haq told a regular briefing.
He said the Syria earthquake flash appeal has received $218 million, or 55 per cent, of the nearly $400 million needed.

Turning to Turkey, the spokesman said the world body continues to support the government-led response to the massive earthquakes.
“The UN and our partners have provided more than 42,000 tents and hundreds of thousands of blankets, bedsheets and mattresses,” he said.
“More than 900,000 people have received food assistance and the World Food Programme has supplied more than 5.7 million food packages and hot meals.”
Haq said the World Health Organization provides healthcare to nearly 24,000 people.
The Unicef reached 319,000 people, including more than 183,000 children, with hygiene kits and non-food items, winter clothes and heaters, among other critical supplies.
However, Haq said the Turkey earthquake appeal of $1 billion is only 10.4 per cent funded.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 10, 2023
Sweden, Finland discuss NATO accession with Turkey

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Brussels: Representatives of Sweden, Finland and Turkey held talks in Brussels to discuss progress on fulfilling Turkey’s conditions for agreeing to the Nordic countries’ accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the military bloc said in a statement.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in 2022 but faced objections from NATO-member Turkey on the grounds that the two countries harbour members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Ankara.
The accession needs a unanimous agreement by all members of NATO.
According to NATO’s statement, “the participants welcomed the progress that had been made” on a three-way deal called the Trilateral Memorandum, struck last year in Madrid, aimed at satisfying Turkey’s complaints, Xinhua news agency reported.
The participants also agreed that rapid ratifications for both Finland and Sweden would be in NATO’s interest, and that their membership would strengthen the bloc, the statement said.
“Finland and Sweden have taken unprecedented steps to address legitimate Turkish security concerns. It is now time for all allies to conclude the ratification process and welcome Finland and Sweden as full members of the alliance ahead of the upcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
As agreed in the Memorandum, there won’t be any arms export restrictions between the parties; they need to significantly enhance counter-terrorism cooperation; and Sweden is now in the process of tightening anti-terrorism legislation, including against the PKK.
The three countries on Thursday agreed to meet again in the same format ahead of the NATO summit in July.

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 10, 2023
Cristiano Ronaldo funds flight with care items for quake victims in Turkey, Syria

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In a humanitarian gesture, Portuguese and Saudi Al-Nassr star Cristiano Ronaldo has sent a plane of care items to the victims affected by the earthquake in Syria and Turkey.
Earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria on February 6, with a magnitude of 7.7 and 7.6 Richter scale, killing more than 50,000 people, injuring tens of thousands, and displacing thousands more in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes.
The aid sent from the Portuguese star includes tents, medical facilities, pillows, blankets, beds, milk, baby food and food packages, according to a report by the British newspaper Daily Mail.
As per media reports, there is “hope that Ronaldo’s initiative will encourage other sports personalities to follow his example in the coming days and weeks.”
As per Marca, this donation is valued at 350,000 dollars (Rs 2,86,09,875).
Cristiano Ronaldo sent a plane filled with care items such as food, blankets parcels, pillows, tents, baby food, milk & medical supplies to help victims of the earthquake in Syria and Turkey.
Legend. 🇸🇾🇹🇷❤️ pic.twitter.com/UEJ3FC8xMO
— Frank Khalid OBE (@FrankKhalidUK) March 5, 2023
This humanitarian stance is not the first on the part of Cristiano Ronaldo towards those affected in Turkey and Syria, as he was the first to participate in the campaign launched by the Turkish Merih Demiral, the current Atalanta defender, who teamed up with the “Don” in Juventus.
Demiral published a tweet on February 7, 2023, in which he wrote in Turkish, “I spoke with Cristiano Ronaldo and he told me that he was very sad about what happened in Turkey.”
The former Juventus defender added, “We will auction off the signed Ronaldo shirt in my collection, and all the proceeds will be used in the areas affected by the earthquake.”

Days later, on February 9, 2023, Demiral succeeded in selling Cristiano’s shirt, along with his former Juventus colleagues, Argentine Paulo Dybala and Italian Leonardo Bonci, for a large sum.
Demiral tweeted, “In the auction that we started, I found 3 shirts of their owners. The shirts of Ronaldo, Bonucci and Dybala, which were offered in the auction, were sold for a total amount of 5 million Turkish liras (about 266 thousand dollars).”
He added, “All proceeds from the sale will be used to help the people in the earthquake areas.”
Earlier, Ronaldo paid for a child’s brain surgery at a cost of 83,000 dollars (Rs 67,85,831) and donated 165,000 dollars (Rs 1,34,89,905) to help fund a cancer centre in his native Portugal.
Ronaldo also donated one million and 200,000 (Rs 1,63,51,400) dollars to Portuguese hospitals during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 6, 2023
Death toll in Turkey earthquake rises above 45000: UN

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Ankara: The latest statement of AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency) said that 45,089 people lost their lives while 1,15,000 people were injured in the Turkey earthquake, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.
A devastating earthquake of 7.8 on the Richter scale hit Southern Turkiye in the early hours of 6 February (4.17 a.m.), with its epicentre in the Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province. The earthquake affected the neighbouring provinces of Adiyaman, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Elazig and Adana where about 14 million people reside including about 1,8 million Syrian refugees.
A second major earthquake hit the region after 9 hours with 7.5 magnitudes causing further severe damage and destruction of damaged buildings.
Aftershocks continue after the Kahramanmaras earthquakes. On 20 February, a 6.4 earthquake in Hatay, the epicentre of which was in Defne district, and a 5.6 magnitude earthquake centred in Malatya on 27 February also caused the collapse of many damaged buildings and added to the death toll.
STL published its previous Situation Report on February 28. Below are listed a number of region-wide developments for the period of February 28 to March 3.
According to the ‘2023 Earthquakes Displacement’ report prepared by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a total of 2.7 million people left the disaster area.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has warned of the urgent need for a sustainable short- and long-term response to health, mental health and psychosocial needs in Turkey and Syria to prevent a “second disaster”.
The Minister of National Education of Turkiye announced that 202,817 students affected by the disaster were transferred to other cities.

UNICEF announced that 2.5 million children are in need of urgent humanitarian aid in the disaster zone.
The President of Turkiye announced that 2,14,000 buildings were destroyed and heavily damaged, to be demolished immediately.
UN OCHA mapped the sectors and locations of NGOs operational in the earthquake zone. The organizations that operate in the ten sectors can be accessed via the map.
The Turkish Government reported that a total of 911,942 people affected by the disaster were provided with psychosocial support at 4 mobile social service centres in the provinces of Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Osmaniye and Malatya.
It has been officially announced that the payment of 10,000 Turkish lire per household to the disaster-affected people was made to one million families.
STL continues its emergency response in the disaster area, namely in Hatay, Adiyaman, Kahramanmaras, Diyarbakir and Sanliurfa in the sectors of shelter/NFI, WASH, MHPSS and protection.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 5, 2023