Turkey-Syria Earthquake Toll Rises

 

The latest grim news from the regions hit by Monday's earthquake: 

More than 5,100 people have died after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and neighboring Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a state of emergency for three months in 10 regions hit, as rescuers continue to dig through the rubble of collapsed buildings in search of survivors. The massive quake, one of the largest to strike the quake-prone area in the past century, is raising fears of a new humanitarian crisis in a region strained by years of war, displacement and economic hardship.

 

The Washington Post lists several known relief organizations that are mobilized to help:

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent: Turkish Red Crescent teams — part of the International Red Cross — in Turkey and Syria are providing hot meals and drinks, shipping needed blood and plasma into affected areas, and providing survivors with psychosocial support, the American Red Cross said. The Turkish Red Crescent said it has mobilized 77 catering vehicles, five mobile kitchens and nearly 2,000 tents.

Doctors Without Borders: Doctors Without Borders teams have already begun working in the affected areas, including at “impacted and overwhelmed” health facilities in northern Syria. The humanitarian medical NGO said its teams are reinforcing and supporting local medical teams, as well as donating emergency medical and essential life kits. The organization said one of its staff members was found dead under the rubble of his collapsed home.

Oxfam: The British-founded group said it is gathering information on the scale of the destruction to come up with short- and long-term response plans. Oxfam said its Turkish affiliate group partners with dozens of women’s cooperatives, and is working with them to assess what is needed.

Save the Children: The international NGO said it has established a response team in Turkey to support the national emergency response plan. It added that it is working to assess the scale of damage in northwest Syria and Turkey, and is planning to support winterization and the provision of emergency kits.

Keep in mind that sometimes, you may not be able to specify where your donations are used; instead, those funds may support a group’s broader work.

In the meantime, as rescue and recovery efforts proceed, Turkish former journalist Asli Aydintasbas wants there to be an accounting if ignoring building standards was a cause of mass casualties:

...as Erdogan has expanded his own power (and as Turkey’s European dream has faded), the government’s interest in living up to European safety norms has eroded. In 2018, nearly two decades after the massive 1999 earthquake, Turkey finally passed much-awaited earthquake legislation. But those rules have been more honored in the breach than the observance. Erdogan has frequently described the construction industry as the crown jewel of the economy — encouraging a tacit lack of oversight. Turkey’s big public contracts tend to go to the same government cronies. Make what you will of this.  [snip]

Natural disaster is one aspect of the story. Turkey’s reliance on construction-driven economic growth, cronyism and willingness to ignore its own building standards is the other. The first was unavoidable. Did the second lead to mass casualties? At the very minimum, the Turkish people will have every right to demand a thorough investigation of precisely that question.

Call us autocrat- phobic, but most things associated with Erdogan have us smelling a rat.  Regardless for now, as Aydintasbas said,"today is a day of mourning and support" -- but the day for asking questions is coming.

(Photo: Destruction and despair in Hatay, Turkey/ Umit Bektas/Reuters)