Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to press after 7.7 and seven.6 magnitude earthquakes hit southern provinces of Turkey, on February 07, 2023 in Ankara, Turkey.
Mustafa Kamaci | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in 10 of the country’s provinces Tuesday.
Turkey, and neighboring Syria, are reeling from two consecutive earthquakes — the region’s strongest in nearly a century — which have devastated huge swathes of territory, taking lives and buildings with it.
On the time of writing, the death toll from the quakes is above 5,000, with many still missing and critically injured. And shortly after the seismic disaster left tens of hundreds of individuals homeless, a brutal winter storm set in, threatening yet more lives.
The quakes, which took place nine hours apart and measured 7.8 and seven.5 on the Richter scale, respectively, destroyed no less than 6,000 buildings, many while people were still inside them. Rescue efforts are continuing — Turkey’s government has deployed nearly 15,000 search and rescue personnel — and countries all over the world have pledged aid, but emergency staff in each countries say they’re completely overwhelmed.
Rescuers and civilians search for survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras, near the quake’s epicentre, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeast, on February 7, 2023.
Adem Altan | Afp | Getty Images
Syria, already crippled from years of war and terrorism, is the least prepared for such a crisis. The affected regions are home to hundreds of internally displaced people already living in dire conditions like tents and makeshift shacks, with little or no health and emergency service infrastructure to depend on.
With the dust of the catastrophe still settling, regional analysts are zoning in on the longer-term impacts it could have on Turkey, a rustic whose 85 million-strong population was already mired in economic problems — and whose military, economy and president have a serious impact far beyond its borders.
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